Inset: Rosa Hernandez (GoFundMe). Background: A man breaking down at the scene of the alleged "road rage" shooting of Rosa Hernandez in front of her two children (WFLD/YouTube).
A 5-year-old boy in Illinois watched his mom get shot in the head while riding in a car with her and his 2-year-old sibling, according to police. When police found the child, he was crying and saying he thought "his mom was dead already."
Rosa Hernandez, a Chicago mother of five, survived the shooting, but she is in critical condition at the hospital. She was a passenger in a car heading through the city's Brighton Park neighborhood the morning of Oct. 22 with her 2- and 5-year-old children when the shooting happened, according to police.
Local officials say "road rage" was the cause of the shooting.
"It's hard for [the children] because they saw everything," said Hernandez's sister, Sonia Hernandez, in an interview with local CW affiliate WGN. "At the moment they were in shock, crying, the 5-year-old saying his mom was dead already."
Alderman Raymond Lopez, who represents Chicago's 15th Ward, says the shooting allegedly stemmed from a road rage dispute that may have unfolded over several blocks before gunfire erupted near the intersection of 47th Street and Western Avenue.
"This may actually have gone on for several blocks, ultimately culminating with the woman being shot here at this [intersection of 47th and Western]," Lopez told WGN.
Investigators have yet to answer questions about what led to the shooting or who fired the gun. A gray sedan was reportedly seen following Hernandez's vehicle shortly before the attack, but the circumstances surrounding the suspected shooter remain unclear.
Hernandez's family has kept vigil at Mount Sinai Hospital, where she remains in a medically induced coma. Relatives have been playing messages from her children in her hospital room, hoping she will somehow hear them.
"They're waiting for her, that they think she's at work," Sonia Hernandez said.
Because Rosa Hernandez suffered severe brain damage, her family does not know what life will look like if she survives.
"Her brain has really bad damage," Sonia Hernandez said.
"My sister is still alive, here with us, fighting for her life, but it's never going to be the same person, if she stays here," she told WGN. "She won't be able to do things by herself, and we don't know if she can even talk."
The family has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay Hernandez's medical expenses. The page says, "Rosa was shot in the head during a 'road rage incident' in front of two of her children." They have urged the person responsible to turn themselves in and to think about their actions.
"Take a couple of minutes to think about what happened," Sonia Hernandez said. "This time it was my sister, next time you could hit babies."
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