Artist Eastling isn’t exactly sure why he took his company up on an offer for emergency medical training.
But he has a good idea what placed him at Guaranteed Rate Field when a speeding car barreled into a crowd of people Tuesday night.
“It was God’s calling,” Eastling said Wednesday. “When you see someone in need, you help them. You don’t turn your back on them.”
Eastling said he quickly applied a tourniquet on a man’s bleeding leg and checked on other people before paramedics arrived within minutes. “The officers tried to hold me back at first, but they let me help when I told them about my EMS training,” he said.
Eastling, 57, was there to see the White Sox play the Texas Rangers. A driver heading east on 35th Street suddenly sped down the road and hit at least four people near Shields at about 6:30 p.m., according to police.
One of the victims flew over the hood and became lodged in the sunroof as the car sped away down the Dan Ryan Expressway, where it was stopped at 46th Street. Four people in the car were taken into custody and transported to hospitals.
“I was about 7 feet away when I saw the first man get hit and then sent through the sunroof,” Eastling said. “He was going at least 60 [mph] or better. If you hit someone and they’re stuck in your sunroof, you know you’re supposed to stop. [The driver] just kept going.”
That man, Charles Janczy, was taken in serious condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center. He later tweeted, “I’m the guy who went thru the sunroof. I’m OK - a few broken bones and a lot of swelling, but I’ll recover.”
A woman and two men were also hit by the speeding car.
“The lady hit a bus stop pole and was bleeding very heavily,” Eastling said. “One guy was hit, bam, and then he rolled over the car, that’s how the windshield cracked. The other guy was trying to get out of the way when the driver swerved to him and knocked him to the curb, where he hit the back of his head.”
Eastling ripped a piece of cloth from a victim’s shirt to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
The woman, 51, was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, and the men, 24 and 25, were taken to Stroger Hospital in fair and critical condition, police said.
“Everybody handled it to the best of their ability,” said Eastling, who’s from the West Side and works for Dakkota Integrated Services. “I give the emergency responders a 10 rating because they did exactly what they needed to do.”
The driver of the car, Condelarious Garcia, 20, faces four felony counts each of failure to report an injury accident and aggravated reckless driving causing bodily harm, police said.
He also faces one misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended license, police said, and citations for failure to reduce speed, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and having an expired registration. Garcia is due in Central Bond Court on Thursday.
Court records show Garcia was cited in 2019 for driving on a suspended license. A police report indicates he did not own the car he was driving Tuesday.
