Three men shot a 72-year-old man during a robbery attempt in Englewood overnight, police said, but the victim waited a long time to get help because nobody called 911 to report the shooting and, unfortunately, the mayor disconnected the neighborhood’s ShotSpotters last year.

Officers in the Deering (9th) District reported hearing gunfire around 1:16 a.m., estimating that it occurred somewhere near Ashland and Garfield. They searched the area and spotted three men who ran away as the officers approached, according to Chicago police radio transmissions.

Officers engaged the trio in a foot pursuit, but the men slipped away.

Minutes later, around 1:25 a.m., a 911 caller reported that a man was outside screaming in the 5600 block of South Justine, just a block away from where officers spotted the three suspects.

The screaming man turned out to be the shooting victim. He told police that three men confronted him and demanded his property. When he refused, one of the men pulled a gun and fired shots, striking him in the left shin. CPD said he is in fair condition.

An officer at the scene said the robbers were three Black males, one of whom was particularly tall. The cops who chased after the suspects said that matched the description of the men they pursued.

In total, it took about nine minutes from the time of the shooting until first responders learned that someone had been injured in the incident.

The city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection network covered the neighborhood until Mayor Brandon Johnson pulled the plug in September. Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th), who represents the area, was among the City Council’s 67% majority who tried to convince the mayor to keep ShotSpotter active.

In fact, Coleman was among three aldermen who worked with business leaders to raise $2.5 million to help cover the cost of keeping the system active. Johnson and his administration rebuffed those efforts.

“We are both saddened and disappointed in terms of where we are at with any sound detecting system that could help alert CPD to save lives in communities like Englewood, Auburn Gresham, far Southeast Side, North Lawndale, South and West Sides, which impacts Black and Brown people,” Coleman said during a press conference announcing the $2.5 million availability.

Brandon’s Bodies

As of 12:01 a.m. on September 23, 2024, Chicago terminated its relationship with ShotSpotter, a gunfire detection system deployed in 12 of the city’s most violence-impacted neighborhoods.  Mayor Brandon Johnson stubbornly refused to reconsider his decision to dismantle ShotSpotter, despite the vast majority of aldermen, many citizens, victim advocates, and his handpicked police superintendent requesting that it remain in place.

This reporting series, named “Brandon’s Bodies,” seeks to document cases of shooting victims and police investigations that could have benefited from gunshot detection technology.

The general criteria for inclusion are a gunshot victim found outside 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 did not lead to the timely location of the victim.

Editor’s note: The case previously included as #13 on this list has been removed as of May 21, 2025, because the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office investigation determined the individual died by suicide in a fall from height.