MILWAUKEE — A Bay View woman is fighting for her life after she was caught in the middle of a drag race while crossing the street Saturday night.

Cara Corder, 33, was left lying in the road on S. Kinnickinnic Avenue near East Ruske Avenue as the two drivers sped away.

Corder’s friend and boss, Chris Schulist, told TMJ4’s Tahleel Mohieldin that he was there when it happened, looking out the window of his bar, the Wiggle Room.

He said that at the time it was difficult to understand what his eyes were seeing.

“I saw people panicking and I went out,” he recalls. “I just remember looking at everyone and being like what is this – who is this?”

So he started looking at the familiar people around him, his employees and the regulars at the bar. It was then that he realized that there was a face missing from the group.

“I feel like Cara isn’t here. Is it Cara? » he asked. “The people who hit her just didn’t stop, didn’t even blink. They just kept going. »

Schulist was horrified.

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“We ran into the street,” he said, holding back tears. “We had to do it: people stopped traffic so she wouldn’t get hit again.”

The terrifying situation has Schulist and his neighbors sounding the alarm about reckless driving.

Brian Redd lives a few doors down from the Wiggle Room.

“At a certain time of night, it’s kind of anarchy, anything goes,” Redd said. “There is no police presence and I don’t know why.”

Redd said he doesn’t park his own car on the street because he’s seen enough of it to know it would be a risk.

“I’ve seen cars completely destroyed and then drivers back up and drive away,” he said. “Most of the time there is no follow-up, they get away with it.”

He said stories like this about Kinnickinnic are common and have gone on for years without resolution. That’s why he wants to see a more active police presence in the area.

“I would love to see someone park in that area at night,” he said. “They see a cop sitting here and they know, ‘Hey, we better not go down this road quickly.’ That would be fantastic.

Schulist wants to go further than increasing the police presence, starting with a speed bump.

“If there’s any place where it would make sense to put a speed bump or something like that, it would be this drag,” he insisted. “You need something here, if they’re going 70 mph it’s going to mess up their cars. It’s the only way to stop them.

He hopes to spare others from a fate that Corder is still fighting to overcome. In the meantime, Schulist said he’s clinging to whatever good news about Corder’s condition he can find.

“She is responsive. She moves her arm,” Corder explained. “I’m just glad she didn’t die, because actually, I could have stood by her dead body in the street that day.”

Milwaukee police said they were investigating the hit-and-run. They confirmed that two cars were racing and one of them hit a pedestrian crossing the street.

They said the two unknown cars fled the scene. MPD is investigating the incident.

A gofundme was created by Corder’s friends to help the 33-year-old pay her hospital bills, rehabilitation costs and living expenses on her difficult road to recovery.

The GoFundMe, which describes Corder as a Milwaukee treasure, has so far raised more than $40,000.

To Schulist and others in the community, Corder is more than deserving of our support, because in addition to her work at the Vanguard and organizing art shows, she always shows up to support those close to her,

“He’s one of the hardest-working people I know,” Schulist said.

In a Facebook post Saturday, area alderman Marina Dimitrijevic said her office was in communication with Milwaukee police.

Dimitrijevic said MPD District 6 would increase its patrols in the area and that his office had asked the Department of Public Works to conduct a new analysis of the area along Kinnikinnic Avenue.

“We send our deepest thoughts to Cara, her family and her friends at the Vanguard,” Dimitrijevic wrote. “We can and must do better in our city.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7219, or to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (414) 224-Tips/ or P3 Tips.

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