CHICAGO — Less than 24 hours after Chicago ended its relationship with ShotSpotter, a Chicago police officer found a woman shot and seriously injured on a South Side street previously served by the gunfire detection system.
No one called 911 to report that gunshots had been heard in the area, and no one called to report a shooting victim.
A CPD sergeant encountered the 30-year-old woman on the sidewalk in the 7700 block of South Dobson Monday around 9:15 p.m. She suffered two gunshot wounds to the leg and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, CPD said.
According to preliminary information, she told police that a man in a black car shot her.
Officers found shell casings by following the woman’s trail of blood. One casing was located a few steps away in Dobson. Another was found in a vacant lot in the 7700 block of South Greenwood.
A witness told police they heard a gunshot in the area and saw the woman hit a gangway and collapse, according to an officer at the scene. Yet the city did not receive a 911 call about it.
Councilwoman Michelle Harris (8th) represents the block where the shooting occurred. In recent weeks, she has broken away from her usual position as a strong supporter of the mayor by joining most of her colleagues in asking the mayor to keep ShotSpotter active.
“I recently had a shooting in my neighborhood. The police were there within minutes because of ShotSpotter,” Harris told reporters earlier this monthnoting that no one had called 911 about the shooting. “All my (police) commanders support it.”
About this series
On September 23, 2024 at 12:01 a.m., Chicago ended its relationship with ShotSpotter, a gunfire detection system deployed in 12 of the city’s most violence-affected neighborhoods.
Mayor Brandon Johnson stubbornly refused to reconsider his decision to dismantle ShotSpotter, even as the vast majority of councilors, many citizens, victims’ advocates and his hand-picked police commissioner asked for it to remain in place.
This reporting series, called “Brandon’s Bodies,” seeks to document shooting victim cases and police investigations that could have benefited from gunshot detection technology.
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Tim Hecke is the managing partner of CWBChicago. He started his career at KMOX, the legendary news radio station in St. Louis. From there he went on to work at stations in Minneapolis, Chicago and New York City. Tim went on to build syndicated radio news and content services serving each of America’s 100 largest radio markets. He became managing partner of CWBChicago in 2019. His email address is tim@cwbchicago.com
