A pedestrian killed in a high-speed crash in the Chatham neighborhood in April that led to a man facing reckless homicide charges has been identified as an 18-year-old South Side woman.
Bria Hunter was walking in the 8700 block of South Lafayette on April 26 when a Volkswagen barreled through a red light at 90 mph and hit her, catapulting her 100 feet, authorities said.
George Evans, 23, has been charged with reckless homicide with a motor vehicle for the crash, prosecutors said previously.
George Evans / Photo from Chicago Police
Hunter had remained unidentified until Tuesday, when a friend of the family saw her description on the Cook County medical examiner’s office website, spokesman Frank Shuftan said.
Prosecutors claim Evans was driving a rented car with his cousin and the cousin’s young children, and had stopped at a gas station near 79th and State.
One of the children woke up and said she needed to use the restroom. Evans said he would get them home, and struck the pedestrian as he headed back toward the Dan Ryan Expressway, prosecutors said.
The impact shattered the window of the Volkswagen, authorities said.
Hunter, of the 8200 block of South Kimbark, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the medical examiner’s office.
After the crash, Evans was captured on a cell phone video standing over the woman’s body, laughing as he talked about having been in another crash the previous week, prosecutors said.
When police arrived, Evans was sitting in the driver’s seat of the Volkswagen and admitted to the crash, prosecutors said. He told police he was only driving the rental vehicle because his car had been totaled in the other crash.
Evans was ordered held on a $250,000 bond. He was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a hearing in the case.