LAKEVIEW — A Grubhub delivery driver has turned himself in to police after he ran over a restaurant worker with his car and fled the scene Friday night.
The seriously injured woman, Bijan Choya Early, 24, was hit by the man after she confronted him outside her family’s restaurant, Ms. T’s Southern Fried Chicken, 3343 N. Broadway. The attack was caught on video.
Early, the victim, said in the video she confronted the Grubhub driver after he allegedly kicked the restaurant’s door. The driver was told to wait outside the small restaurant to comply with the state’s social distancing restrictions because of coronavirus, said Maureen Martino, executive director of the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce.
Early was taken to Illinois Masonic hospital with multiple broken bones. She had a nine-hour surgery on Saturday to repair her pelvis and could have another on Sunday to repair broken bones in her arms, said her mother, Angenita Tanner. Tanner owns the restaurant.
In the video, Early and Tanner are standing near the man’s car, telling him they’ve called the police.
An exasperated Early can be heard telling the man, “We’re waiting on the police for you, baby, because you just kicked our door. This is too much disrespect that we get on a day-to-day, and we’re just trying to be essential workers and feed people. This is ridiculous.”
Moments later, as Tanner tells the man she has called the police, he rams his silver Toyota Prius into Early, lifting her onto the hood before dragging her underneath the car.
WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT
A man who witnessed the incident told Block Club the driver walked past him “in a huff” on his way back to his car. The man asked not to be named because he feared retaliation from the driver.
He said he heard the man threaten to run over the women before accelerating into Early.
“She was dragged I would say up to 40 feet and was run over by both ends of the car. He could’ve stopped multiple times,” he said. “The car bounced twice. He knew he ran her over and then ran her over again.”
Chicago Police spokesman Ronald Westbrooks confirmed a man turned himself in related to the incident. The man has not been named as charges are pending, Westbrooks said.
On Saturday, a Grubhub spokeswoman said the driver passed a background check and the company was cooperating with police.
“We are shocked and appalled by these reports, and our hearts go out to the person injured and her family,” she said. “We have revoked this driver’s access to our platform and terminated his contract with us. We are fully cooperating with the Chicago Police Department and provided them with information about this driver.”
The spokeswoman did not answer further questions.
The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce shared a video of the incident on its Facebook page but later deleted it. The video was provided by Tanner, according to Martino. She said she took down the video after the man turned himself in.
Martino described the family as “hardworking people” trying to run a business during the difficulties of the pandemic. She has been in contact with Tanner and said the Chamber of Commerce will help coordinate a fundraiser after they are able to consult with the family.
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