Car smashes into Avondale living room, shattering homeowner's ribcage, after driver is shot in street
Driver shot before crashing into Avondale home
A shooting near 116th Lane and Washington ended in a vehicle crashing into an Avondale home. FOX 10's Andrew Christiansen learns more about the incident that sent the suspect and a woman to the hospital.
AVONDALE, Ariz. - An overnight shooting in Avondale left a driver critically injured and sent a woman to the hospital after the victim's car crashed into her house Friday night.
What we know:
Avondale Police officers rushed to Avondale Boulevard and Van Buren Street around 9:15 p.m. Aug. 7 after reports of gunfire and a car crashing into a home. Investigators learned that an adult male driver was shot multiple times by a "group of unknown individuals" before his car slammed into the house, striking a woman who was inside at the time.
"It was pretty traumatic. It was a little rough. It was super loud," neighbor Jerry Lizama said. "There was what sounded like several gunshots, maybe like a semiautomatic weapon, something of that sort followed by this huge loud boom."
Daytime damage and nighttime aerial response at an Avondale home where a shot driver crashed into the residence Friday night, injuring a woman inside. (FOX 10)
"I actually heard the truck crash into the house. Moments after that, I just heard screaming," neighbor Isabella Stevens added.
Neighbors Step Up
"I heard the neighbor come out yelling ‘my mom, my mom,’" said another neighbor, Julio Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said he rushed to help the woman inside the house who got hit by the truck.
"Just trying to make sure the neighbor’s mom was ok and anything I could do at the time being, if I could do it, I was willing to do to help," Gonzalez said. "She was underneath the truck, kind of scary scene, but she was talking to us. She was breathing."
Dig deeper:
The woman's daughter told FOX 10 her mother was sitting in her front room when the vehicle plowed through the wall, leaving her with a "bunch of broken ribs." A neighbor recalled hearing the loud impact of the crash, though nearby security cameras failed to record the event.
Both the driver and the resident were rushed to local hospitals. The driver remains in critical but stable condition, while the resident was released. The suspects fled the scene immediately after the shooting and have not been located.
Police said stray gunfire also struck a neighbor's home, but no additional injuries were reported. Heavy debris remained scattered across the property Saturday morning.
"You hear several shootings unfortunately after they had built that QT back here, so you hear shootings every once in a while, but never here in the streets right in front of our house," Lizama said.
What's next:
The Avondale Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Bureau has taken over the investigation, which remains active.
What you can do:
Anyone with information is asked to contact Silent Witness at 623-333-7001.
Map of the area where the shooting occurred:
The Source: Information in this report was gathered from the Avondale Police Department, a neighbor and the female victim's daughter.