William Thomas Jr. watches his fiancee, Jaquita Sims, walk to her car every morning as she leaves their West Side home heading to work at O’Hare Airport.
Early Wednesday morning, shortly after she left, Sims called Thomas to tell him that she had been shot.
“I’m very glad she wasn’t killed,” Thomas told the Sun-Times. “The bullets were everywhere on the passenger side [and] just hit her breast only and nothing else. She’s blessed.”
Sims, 40, was released from West Suburban Hospital on Wednesday, Thomas said.
She is being cared for by her mother as she continues to recover, Thomas said.
“She’s still in a lot of pain,” Thomas said. “The pain pills they’ve given her are not really doing anything.”
Thomas said he was confused when he arrived at the hospital in Oak Park because the bullet-riddled vehicle parked outside wasn’t hers.
“I’m thinking somebody tried to carjack her or rob her on the way to work,” Thomas said. Police “told me the vehicle she got shot in was outside the hospital, so I go outside to see the vehicle, and it’s not her vehicle.”
Thomas said the rear brakes on Sims’ Lexus were “making a sound” and she wasn’t sure she wanted to drive it to work.
She called a co-worker, who offered to give her a ride.
Sims and the co-worker, a 65-year-old man, were in his vehicle in the 100 block of North Kostner Avenue when four people got out of a silver SUV and demanded the vehicle about 4:40 a.m. Wednesday, Chicago police said.
“They saw a car coming down a one-way street real fast and they thought it was the police chasing somebody,” Thomas said, describing what Sims told him. “When the car stopped by their vehicle, they just got out and started shooting the car.”
Sims’ co-worker fired at the attackers with his own weapon, but he did not hit anyone. One of the attackers fired back, hitting Sims in her right breast and grazing the man in his right calf, police said. The four got back into the SUV and sped away.
Sims’ co-worker, who has a concealed-carry license and a valid firearm owners ID card, drove them to the hospital in Oak Park, police said.
No one was in custody. Area 4 detectives are investigating.
