Ring video captures road rage, hit-and-run in Streamwood
A Ring video camera on a home in a Streamwood cul-de-sac recorded footage of an apparent road rage incident that turned into a hit-and-run in which a baby appeared to be injured Wednesday afternoon.
Streamwood Deputy Police Chief Josh Norum described the matter as an active police investigation on Friday and said he could not release any details, including whether any of the people involved had been located.
The video from Dawn Stowitts' home on Aspen Court begins at 3:09 p.m. and shows first one car screeching into the cul-de-sac and then a driveway, followed by an equally fast second car that blocks the first as the driver tries to back out.
A group of people get out of the second car and approach the first in a threatening matter. In attempting to flee, the driver of the first car strikes the front passenger's side of the pursuing vehicle twice before speeding away.
A woman in the second group then begins crying for her "baby" and takes what appears to be a very young child out of the car and carries it over to the nearest lawn. Another member of the group then gets back into the damaged car and races away in the same direction as the first.
Shortly afterward, a third car arrives to pick up the abandoned members of the group, who speak of their intention to go to the hospital.
"Our speculation is road rage and that the first car cut the other one off or gestured to them," Stowitts said.
Though Stowitts was not home at the time, her 18-year-old son, Corbin, was and heard the sound of the two vehicles speeding into the cul-de-sac. Aspen Court is next to the major thoroughfare of Streamwood Boulevard and is a popular turnaround for drivers unfamiliar with the area who miss it, Stowitts said.
But having cars spin into the cul-de-sac that fast is an unusual occurrence that caught her son's attention, she added.
Although the baby is too far away in the video to be seen clearly, an air-conditioning technician who was working on a neighboring house described the child as being 6 months to a year old, Stowitts said.
The first Stowitts knew of the matter was when she saw on her phone that someone was ringing the doorbell. Corbin explained to her that a firefighter was asking whether their Ring camera was connected.
Though the video couldn't explain to her what started the altercation between the two vehicles, it did appear to show something she found shocking as a parent.
"We are 99% sure that the baby that was injured was unrestrained in the front seat of the second car," Stowitts said.
She said the closest hospital to her neighborhood is St. Alexius Medical Center a few miles away in Hoffman Estates, but she doesn't know whether the injured baby showed up there.
"It's mind-boggling," Stowitts said. "I hope the police are able to get all the participants."