One Dead After SUV Crashes Into House In Wheeling; Driver Fled Scene

CHICAGO (CBS)-- One peson was killed after an SUV crashed into a house in Wheeling  on Wednesday morning. The driver of the SUV fled and has not yet been located.

Police said a man was found deceased near the car, but investigators did not say whether he was a pedestrian or was somehow ejected from the vehicle. A witness said the car was chasing the man who was fatally struck. Two people inside the home, a mother and daughter, were nearly hit by the car, but were not injured.

Chopper 2 was over the scene in the 700 block of Equestrian Drive and showed the SUV partially lodged in the front entrance of the home.

Tanya Kirilova lives in the house right next door. She says she witnessed what appeared to be a chase, and her husband tried to run after the driver. He almost got him, too, but the driver tried to hit him with a stick and escaped.

"I saw a car chasing (a man). He was trying to protect himself from the car," Kirilova said.  "The person that was running was hit by the car that was chasing him. They found him under the car inside the house." In fact, the witnesses to the horrific scene only realized somebody was under the car when they heard the victim moaning in pain.

"He just wanted to run him over. That was that clear intention."

The driver jumped a fence and got away, she said.

Police are continuing to search for the driver, evening using drones to try to capture him. In an interview off camera, the mother and daughter said they have never seen the driver or the dead man before and are simply thankful to be alive.