17-year-old boy found fatally shot in an alley that used to be monitored by ShotSpotter

CHICAGO — The ShotSpotter gunfire detection system that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson decided to scrap last year would have come in handy Friday morning when 911 callers reported gunfire near the 4700 block of West West End.

The people who heard the shots didn’t see anything; they just heard it. After about ten minutes of searching, around 9:23 a.m., the cops found shell casings at the mouth of an alley. They then found 17-year-old Drevon Watson lying in that alley. He had been shot in the chest. At Stroger Hospital, a doctor pronounced him dead.

If Johnson had not trashed the city’s ShotSpotter network, the system could have told the police immediately that the shots were fired at the mouth of the alley, shaving at least ten minutes off the time it took first responders to find Drevon.

The local alderman, Jason Ervin (28th), carries some responsibility for dismantling ShotSpotter, too. He was in the 33% minority who worked to eliminate it. Most of the other aldermen opposed to the gunfire detection network represent relatively safe wards that never had the system installed in the first place.

Drevon is the 35th shooting victim who could have benefited from a more timely police and EMS response, had Johnson not dismantled ShotSpotter. With spring just a couple of weeks away and summer coming soon, Johnson has still not found a replacement.