Gunshots Ring Out as Uber Driver Collects Woman in Chicago

An Uber driver’s dashboard camera captured the moment gunshots rang out after he picked up a passenger in the West Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday night, March 17.

Video from driver John Williams shows a young woman appearing calm as gets into the back seat of the car before saying, “Go, go, go! He’s going to shoot at the car.”

“Shoot up the car?” Williams asks as he pulls away. “Yeah! Go!” the woman replies.

Speaking to Storyful, Williams said he was “startled and alarmed” so “quickly accelerated” away, “only to hear two loud gunshots seconds later.”

“What is that?! What the f*** was that?” Williams asks the woman in the video.

“He just shot at the car!” says the woman, who then tells Williams she would call the police.

According to Williams, the passenger took “quick action and contacted the police while we waited not far from the scene” but said “the situation escalated as more gunshots rang out, and cars began making erratic maneuvers on the street.”

“Feeling increasingly uneasy and fearing for our safety, I made the difficult decision to inform [the passenger] that I couldn’t wait for the police any longer,” Williams told Storyful.

Williams said he and the passenger switched the destination to her relative’s house, to reduce the risk that the shooter was following her. “Ensuring her safety became my top priority,” said Williams, who added that continued his shift after dropping her off.

Storyful contacted Chicago Police but they said they had no record of the shooting.

According to a 2023 report from Chicago Sun-Times, West Garfield Park is the city’s most violent neighborhood. “No city in America sees more shootings than Chicago, and nowhere in the city is gun violence more intense than in West Garfield Park,” the report said. An 88-year-old resident interviewed for the article was quoted as saying she “used to call the police all the time” but now didn’t bother due to the regularity of the violence. Credit: John Williams via Storyful

Video transcript

- Yeah. Go, go, go. He's going to shoot out the car.

- Shoot up the car?

- Yeah, go.

[GUNSHOTS]

- What the [MUTED]? What is that?

- Go.

- What the [MUTED] is that? What the [MUTED] was that?

- He just shot at the car.

- For what?

- Let me call the police.

- Man, [MUTED] this [MUTED].

- Let me call the police [INAUDIBLE].

- [SIGHS]

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Diamond?

- Yeah. Go, go, go. He's going to shoot out the car.

- Shoot up the car?

- Yeah, go.

[GUNSHOTS]

- What the [MUTED]? What is that?

- Go.

- What the [MUTED] is that? What the [MUTED] was that?

- He just shot at the car.

- For what?

- Let me call the police.

- Man, [MUTED] this [MUTED].

- Let me call the police [INAUDIBLE].

- [SIGHS]

- [INAUDIBLE]