A 29-year-old woman was found shot to death in a West Side alley Friday morning, becoming at least the 79th shooting victim who might have received faster police and EMS response had Mayor Brandon Johnson not disconnected Chicago’s gunshot detection network 18 months ago.

The woman was found dead behind the 200 block of North Kilbourn around 6:30 a.m. The person who discovered her told police they believed they had heard gunfire approximately 30 minutes earlier, but they never called 911.

In fact, one called.

“We had no calls of shots fired anywhere in the area,” a police dispatcher confirmed over the radio. “I checked back to 4 a.m., and we had nothing.”

“Another one for ShotSpotter,” an officer remarked.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said the woman died from a gunshot wound to her flank. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Data tracked by HeyJackass.com shows that 26% of gunshot victims in Chicago have died from their wounds so far this year. But among those who received a delayed emergency response because no one called 911 and ShotSpotter was no longer there to compensate, the fatality rate climbs to nearly 56% — more than double the citywide rate.

Johnson ended the city’s contract with SoundThinking, the parent company of ShotSpotter, in September 2024, despite objections from two-thirds of the City Council, the city’s police superintendent, and, according to polling, roughly 70% of Chicago residents.

The alderman whose ward covers the alley where the woman was killed was among the minority who supported that decision.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) was one of only about a third of City Council members who backed Johnson’s move to cut ties with the gunshot detection service. Ervin argued that the presence of ShotSpotter was discouraging residents from engaging with police.

“We now have fewer people calling 911. We’ve had less people come to CAPS meetings when we need them to participate. And guess where it’s happening at? On the South and West sides of Chicago,” Ervin said last year. “We’ve got to start playing chess instead of checkers because this type of technology continues to drive community away from what needs to happen and that is engagement with the police department.”

Before the city cut the contract, ShotSpotter’s sensors could automatically alert police to gunfire, regardless of whether any resident picked up a phone. Without it, victims can lie wounded or dying while the clock runs on a response that depends entirely on a call that may never come.

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.

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