CHICAGO — A woman who was shot and seriously injured lay on the ground in pain for more than 20 minutes before first responders found her early Sunday morning. No one called 911 to report gunshots in the area, which was previously served by the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection network.
About 1:40 a.m., an anonymous 911 caller reported hearing a woman calling for help in the 7500 block of South Sangamon. According to police recordings, she said she thought the woman was in the alley or perhaps near a nearby railroad track.
Police went to the area but found no one. As they were wrapping up their search around 2 a.m., another 911 call came in. This time, the person reported hearing a woman screaming that she had been shot in an alley behind the 7500 block of South Sangamon.
Within two minutes, officers and firefighters found the 33-year-old woman. She was in the alley between Sangamon and May, south of 75th Street.
In a media statement, CPD said a man approached the woman in the alley around 1:36 a.m. and fired shots. She was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, according to the police statement.
Ald. David Moore (17th), who led the charge to preserve ShotSpotter and remains an outspoken supporter of the technology, represents the area where the woman was found.
A 19-year-old woman was shot and killed in an alley in Moore’s neighborhood just 24 hours after Mayor Brandon Johnson ended the city’s ShotSpotter service at midnight on September 23. No one called 911 to report the gunfire that killed Sierra Ellis, which was discovered. hours after the shooting.
“It is unfortunate that the young woman’s death is an example of how this tragedy could have been prevented if ShotSpotter technology had still been active,” Moore said last month. “Instead of a resident finding her body hours later, the sound of gunfire would have alerted CPD to multiple shots at 12:06 a.m., and would have done so within 30 seconds of the shots being detected.”
“While the politics of this city try to minimize this tragedy, I will not remain silent. This is about saving lives. It is heartbreaking that a woman is found 9.5 hours after a ShotSpotter alert could have been sent,” Moore concluded. “In the name of safety and on behalf of the residents of the city, I call on the administration to immediately reactivate ShotSpotter.”
Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Garien Gatewood suggested calls to reintroduce ShotSpotter after victims are found dead are “political.”
Moore was annoyed by that idea.
“I resent and challenge Deputy Mayor Garien Gatewood for claiming I do everything for political gain,” Moore said wrote in a Facebook post. “Fighting for what my constituents want is not political gain, it is service. The family that has lost a loved one and is calling for a weapons detection system is not doing so for political gain. They are not even involved in politics and you are going to accuse them of political gain in their time of pain; because of the failure of this government. I thought you were a better person than that.”
“I like you, dude,” Moore continued, “but check yourself first [you] destroy yourself. I expect an apology, or you have to specifically explain your statement to the public about how Councilman David Moore is making political gains by fighting for his residents.”
This week, after a top public safety adviser in Johnson’s administration, Alyxandra Goodwin, was arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant, Moore launched a tirade on Facebook.
“I am crushed to the utmost evil,” Moore said in his post, which included a photo of Goodwin, who is White, and screenshots of her work history in the social justice and police abolition movements.
‘But don’t get carried away [Goodwin]but a system of certain white people, groups or organizations using our community as testing models. As the title says: black people are a PROJECT to them, guinea pigs. It is important that you know the policies and people I am trying to protect my residents from,” de Moore wrote.
Goodwin has referred to the police as “the power of racial capitalism”, and in late 2015 she published an article entitled “A few ways to support police abolition in the new year (or now)..”
