With ShotSpotter gone, Roseland teen walks home for help because nobody called 911

A 16-year-old boy is recovering after being shot in Roseland on Sunday afternoon, and questions are again being raised about Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to disconnect Chicago from the ShotSpotter gunfire detection network.

Police and paramedics found the teen in the 9400 block of South Harvard Avenue around 4:18 p.m. He had been shot twice in the abdomen. Despite the warm weather drawing crowds outside, no one called 911 about the gunfire. The boy walked a couple of blocks to the Harvard location to get help.

He told investigators he was near basketball courts at the Lowden Homes, 200 West 95th Street, when the shooter opened fire. Officers searched the block and found at least one shell casing from the scene.

Had ShotSpotter been active in Roseland on Sunday, police may have been dispatched immediately with a precise location for the gunfire. Instead, a wounded teenager dragged himself home to call for help on his own.

According to an officer who reviewed surveillance footage, the suspected gunman is a Black male who wore a green camouflage mask, gray jogging pants, black shoes, and a black shirt featuring a figure with a red hat.

The boy was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) represents the area where the boy was shot. He was an outspoken supporter of ShotSpotter as the city’s contract wound down last September.

Speaking of Johnson last year, Beale noted that the mayor is “in a bubble, because he’s got 116 people protecting him. You know what? We don’t have that luxury.”

Beale also blasted the city’s priorities: “We’re spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on migrants, OK, people who are just coming here. But we can’t spend $8 million on technology that saves lives?”

Before Johnson ended the city’s relationship with ShotSpotter, both Chicago residents and a supermajority of the City Council pleaded with him to keep the system in place. Even CPD’s own superintendent asked him to keep the system active. After Johnson pushed forward anyway, Beale retaliated by rerouting dozens of the mayor’s favored ordinances into various committees to slow them down or block them entirely.

Brandon’s Bodies

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who campaigned on a pledge to end ShotSpotter in Chicago, allowed the city’s contract with the company to expire on September 23, 2024. He cited concerns about the system’s effectiveness, cost, and impact on community trust, arguing it contributed to over-policing in Black and Latino neighborhoods without meaningfully improving safety.

The move drew sharp backlash. CPD’s superintendent, 67% of City Council members, and a poll showing 70% of residents favored keeping ShotSpotter, but Johnson pressed ahead. A last-minute council attempt to override his decision failed on legal grounds.

On this page, CWBChicago tracks cases in which gunshot victims were found in areas once covered by ShotSpotter without timely 911 calls. These incidents often involve victims discovered with no corresponding calls or with calls that gave vague or inaccurate information about the location of gunfire.