2 years after mayor disconnected ShotSpotter, a gunshot victim lay undiscovered for nearly 30 minutes in West Pullman

A gunshot victim lay undiscovered for nearly 30 minutes on a West Pullman bike path Monday morning before a passerby found him. The man, who remained unidentified Wednesday, was dead by the time help arrived.

The shooting happened in the 800 block of West 117th Street, where 911 callers reported hearing gunfire near Halsted Street around 8:06 a.m., according to CPD dispatch records. None could pinpoint where the shots came from, and officers who searched the area and spoke with witnesses failed to find the shooting scene.

ShotSpotter could have provided police with a precise location for the gunfire even if no 911 caller knew where the shots came from, potentially directing officers to the trail where the victim was lying.

At 8:33 a.m., a passerby found the victim on the Major Taylor Trail. Officers said the man appeared to be in his mid- to late 20s, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Several shell casings were found nearby, confirming that the shooting occurred where his body was discovered.

Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st), whose ward includes the block where the man was killed, was among the City Council supermajority that urged Johnson to extend Chicago’s ShotSpotter contract in 2024. Johnson rejected those pleas, and the system went offline citywide just after midnight on September 23, 2024.

When ShotSpotter was being dismantled, Johnson promised his administration would find a better gunfire detection system to protect every Chicago neighborhood. Nearly two years later, the city has received proposals from multiple companies, but no replacement has been announced.

Since Johnson ended the city’s contract with ShotSpotter following the 2024 Democratic National Convention, CWBChicago has identified 94 cases in which gunshot victims appeared to endure lengthy waits for emergency help in areas the system used to monitor. In some cases, no one called 911 to report the gunfire. In others, callers provided information that was too vague for officers to quickly locate the victims.

Those delays may be costing lives. About 21% of people shot in Chicago this year have died from their injuries, according to data maintained by HeyJackass.com. Among the victims in the delayed-response cases identified by CWBChicago, the fatality rate is nearly three times higher, at 61%.

About this series

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, even though the vast majority of aldermen, many citizens, victims’ advocates, and his handpicked police superintendent requested 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 do not lead to the timely location of the victim.