[2]
UPDATED 11:15 p.m.
CHAMPAIGN — Police say a woman was "conscious and alert" around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday when she apparently crashed a van into a home after being shot.
Champaign police spokeswoman Rene Dunn said police are searching for a man who fled the scene on foot immediately following the shooting in the 900 block of West Church Street. They are still investigating what prompted the shooting, but Dunn said that the victim and the suspect know each other.
The woman was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. Police did not release any more details.
Rosemary Keane was one of the first to approach the woman after she had been shot and said she was lucid and talking. She had been upstairs in the building next door when she heard the van hit the house.
“I just heard a bang, and then some screaming,” Keane said.
Keane said the woman was in the driver’s seat of the van that had crashed into a home near the intersection of Church and Willis streets. She said there was a large amount of blood in the car and a gun on the passenger’s seat.
“She seemed sensible,” Keane said. “She said she has kids at home.”
The vehicle had been traveling west on Church Street. Broken glass was scattered on the street a few hundred feet east of the home, and vehicle tracks were still visible across a couple properties leading up to where the van came to a stop at the corner of a home.
The woman had already called police by the time Keane reached her.
“She said, ‘I can’t breathe,’” Keane said.
Keane reported seeing a man running north on Willis Street after the van hit the house.
News Gazette: Sometimes the "purchase a print" feature located at the bottom when you click on a picture seems to be in very bad taste. Maybe for crime photos you may want to take that off.
Some people have legitimate reasons for purchasing a crime photo.
Could someone, maybe from the N-G, explain the newpaper policy concerning when and when not names are included in articles about crime in the communit? I noticed in today's N-G that names are included in each and every article about a crime except for this situation.
I think it could have something to do with the fact that all the events are relatively new, and the police and the parties involved need a chance to figure everything out before they start reporting names and places.
I'm sure all the rest of it will follow along eventually.
Names were not included in this story because the victim and the shooter are related. They frequently don't include info that would identify the victim. I would have posted sooner but I didn't see it. New schedule.