A Chicago family is celebrating how a 40-year-old woman and her co-worker survived a violent attempted armed carjacking thanks to the co-worker and his firearm.
“There were so many bullet holes, and only one bullet hit my child,” said Janice Sims, mother of Jaquita Sims, who survived an attempted armed carjacking, CBS News reported. “If that were the case. That would be a miracle.” “Her angels covered her. Her God covered her daughter. Thank you, Lord.”
Early last Wednesday morning, Jaquita Sims' car suffered a flat tire on her way to O'Hare International Airport during a vacation trip, her mother told the magazine. Her colleague, identified only as a 65-year-old man, offered to give her a ride and picked her up on Chicago's West Side in his Toyota Corolla.
“It's really sad that someone who is trying to make a living almost loses his life just trying to make a living,” Terrell Stephens, pastor of Sims, told CBS News. “And the people who are committing gun violence are somebody's daughters. You're not just shooting random targets.”
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An attempted carjacking occurred at the corner of Washington Boulevard and N. Kostner Street in Chicago. (Google Maps)
Around 4:40 a.m., four men approached the Corolla in a silver SUV, brandished firearms at Sims and her co-worker and demanded they get out of the car, CBS News reported.
“I started screaming my coworker's name,” Jaquita Sims told the Chicago Sun-Times.
A shootout ensued as the 65-year-old legally armed colleague pulled out his own gun and used the only five bullets he had to protect himself and Sims, the newspaper reported.
“They wanted to carjack,” Janice Sims said. “They probably just shot at the car about 20 times.”
The suspects fled, and the 65-year-old man drove himself and Sims to a local hospital. Sims suffered a gunshot wound to his chest, and the 65-year-old man was grazed by a bullet in his thigh.
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“Then all I heard was a loud bang and I closed my eyes,” Jaquita Sims told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I heard [my coworker] She kept shouting my name but couldn't answer. ”
Police said the co-worker had a concealed carry permit and a valid firearms identification card for the firearm, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Police said his co-worker fired first, but Sims said the suspects opened fire when they saw his co-worker holding a weapon, the newspaper said.
Sims and her colleague have both been released from the hospital.
Chicago Police Department in Chicago's West Inglewood neighborhood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“When you look at this car and all the bullets in her side of the car, she was a passenger, but there were about 20 bullets in her side alone,” Janice Sims said. Ta. “And only one of them hit her, and it didn't kill her. Thank you, Lord.”
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Sims' chaplain joined a circle of strangers and loved ones at West Suburban Medical Center last week to pray for the health of Sims and his colleagues.
“This family was saved from a funeral, this family was saved from a burial. They were saved, they were saved, they were saved,” a man said at the prayer circle.
Fall colors cover the ground above the Chicago skyline with Lake Michigan in the foreground in downtown Chicago on October 16, 2022. (Vincent D. Johnson/Xinhua via Getty Images)
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Sims' mother noted that although her daughter was able to survive the violence, it was inevitable that another mother in Chicago would respond to a more tragic call.
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“I'm sure other mothers will get the same call I got this morning, telling them their child was shot by the same person because the gun was still in their hand,” Janice Sims told CBS News. That's what happened,” he said. “And they'll do it again, and we'll never know who they are — because they'll shoot and run.”
Chicago Police Department officials told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that they had no updates on the incident and that the investigation into the shooting was ongoing.
Chicago ended 2023 with fewer homicides and shootings compared to 2022, returning to pre-pandemic levels, according to police data. However, robberies and car thefts have skyrocketed in the city, increasing by 23% and 37% respectively last year compared to 2022. WTTW reported.
