ST. LOUIS — A rolling gun battle at 3 p.m. along one of the busiest streets in St. Louis.
Innocent people caught in the crossfire, witnesses said this type of crime is the terrifying new normal.
"It seems to be the new drive-by. It seems to become common here in St. Louis. You are in your car and all of a sudden you're caught in between two people shooting at each other driving," said Kelli Lowe, who witnessed the crash.
The gunmen fired the shots along North Grand and Kossuth near Fairground Park. Police said the driver of a 2012 Kia and a 2007 Acura MDX were shooting at each other while driving north on Grand.
Both of their cars crashed into other cars causing a chain reaction.
That crash killed a 25-year-old woman who was thrown from her vehicle. Police clarified Friday she wasn't shot but died after being thrown from her car.
Two toddlers and two teenagers were in the vehicle when the crash happened. The teens were injured and are expected to recover. The toddlers weren't injured.
"There were a lot of cars out there, and I think everybody's general attitude was, 'Oh my goodness,'" Lowe said.
She witnessed the crash through her rear view mirror. She was with out-of-town guests hoping to show them the best of what St. Louis has to offer.
"They immediately started screaming and were like, 'Oh my gosh, what was that?' because it was literally like it was right next to our car. That's how close we were to it," Lowe recalled.
We asked if it crossed her mind that if she was a couple seconds later, she could have been involved in the shooting and crash.
"Absolutely, because we literally were seconds in front of it. We heard the gunfire, so we had been just a few minutes behind we would've gotten caught. If not from the gunfire, from the crash," she said.
In total, police said six cars were damaged by either gunfire or the following crashes.
"Whenever I hear about gunshots or gunfire or anything here and I know that every St. Louisan has this on their mind... what number is this?"
As of March 5, there have been 24 homicides in St. Louis.
At this time, police are not yet classifying this incident as a homicide because the victim was not struck by gunfire.
Anyone with information about this is asked to contact CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS.