CHICAGO – A man was found shot overnight on a West Pullman sidewalk in a neighborhood formerly monitored by the city’s ShotSpotter network.
According to CPD, police found the victim around 1:22 a.m. while responding to a “check the well-being” call in the 200 block of West 119th Street. A police statement to the media revealed that they found the 27-year-old on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to his right leg. He was in fair condition at Roseland Hospital.
No one reported shots fired in the area before the man was found.
Until September 23, emergency responders could have been notified of the shooting in time, because the city had deployed ShotSpotter in the area. However, Mayor Brandon Johnson pulled the plug on the gunfire detection system, against the wishes of two-thirds of the City Council, its police commissioner and, according to a poll, 70% of Chicagoans.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) represents the block where this morning’s victim was found. He was a vocal supporter of ShotSpotter.
When the system’s contract expired in September, Beale said the fact that he and his City Council colleagues had to fight for ShotSpotter “disturbing to my soul.”
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.
The general criteria for inclusion is a gunshot victim found outdoors in a location previously served by ShotSpotter, with either (1) no accompanying 911 calls about gunfire, or (2) calls about gunfire in a general area that is not lead to the timely location of the victim.
