A crash between Chicago police officers hustling to a crime scene has left a local family grieving and seeking answers after the death of the family’s matriarch.
On Saturday night, two Chicago police vehicles, a marked van and an unmarked SUV were responding to a call when they collided near an intersection in the 1200 block of North Laramie. After the vehicles collided, they hit several other vehicles, including the car of 84-year-old Verona Gunn.
Gunn was taken to an area hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
Today, her son Dwight Gunn is demanding answers following what he calls the “reckless abandon” of Chicago police.
“Our mother, who we love deeply, (had) her life improperly cut short,” he said. “(It was) really reckless abandon in my mind.”
Police say that Verona Gunn was taken to Norwegian American Hospital after the crash, and that she died there from her injuries, but her son says that the hospital wasn’t prepared to help his mother.
“Had they taken her to a trauma hospital she may have survived the night, but because that hospital was not prepared to address her needs and they had to wait for her to get transferred to a trauma hospital, they wasted precious time,” Dwight Gunn said.
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On Sunday, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson called the Gunn family to express his condolences, and police issued a statement offering their sympathies as well. While the gestures were appreciated, Dwight Gunn said, that won’t be enough to satisfy their demands for answers.
“We have a lot of questions,” he said. “What was the reason? What was the emergency that caused so much destruction? It’s important for us as a family that we identify and understand why we are here because in our mind we absolutely should not be here.”
Police say that the department’s Major Accident Investigation Unit is investigating the crash, which also left 10 police officers injured. Two officers remain in the hospital as of Sunday evening.
