On Sunday, emergency services faced delays in reaching two gunshot victims because those who heard the shots could only provide general locations, complicating the efforts of officers to find them promptly. One victim, whose 911 call was disconnected, apparently waited 17 minutes for assistance to arrive.
These incidents took place in areas previously monitored by the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system, which was discontinued by Mayor Brandon Johnson in September 2024. Despite Johnson’s promise to implement a superior system, no replacement has been announced or installed.
The shootings occurred in wards represented by aldermen with contrasting views on ShotSpotter. One was an advocate for retaining the technology, while the other supported its removal.
The first shooting happened at approximately 3:37 a.m. on Sunday in the Altgeld Gardens housing complex. Chicago police officers in the vicinity reported hearing gunshots and began searching for the source. No additional reports of gunfire were received, and no 911 calls were made about a shooting victim. Five minutes after hearing the shots, officers discovered a man lying on the 13100 block of South Lankley Avenue and promptly called for an ambulance.
Devon Jones, 25, who resided on the same block, was declared dead at the University of Chicago Hospital, according to records from the CPD and Cook County Medical Examiner.
Ald. Peter Chico, representing the area, is a former Chicago police officer and was among the majority of City Council members who urged Johnson to retain ShotSpotter before the contract expired two years prior.
“Many times, I go to the scenes where people were shot, and I talk to the families,” Chico said during that debate. “And those families, they’re very happy that ShotSpotter was in place, because they don’t know what would have happened if we waited another one minute, two minutes, three minutes.”
The second incident involved another shooting victim who had to wait for officers to locate him Sunday morning.
At approximately 5:16 a.m., a woman called 911 reporting gunshots heard in the 8400 block of South Vincennes Avenue, indicating the gunfire came from a nearby lot.
About seven minutes later, a man called 911 stating he had been shot near 82nd Street and South Emerald Avenue, almost directly across an open area from where the woman reported hearing the shots.
The man’s call disconnected before an exact location could be provided.
Ten minutes after his call, and 17 minutes after the initial report, CPD officers found the man on a porch in the 8200 block of South Emerald Avenue. They immediately called for an ambulance and began lifesaving measures. According to CPD, the man was transported to Christ Hospital in serious condition.
Officers found three shell casings and a gun in front of the house where the victim was located, suggesting that the shooting happened there.
The area falls within the former ShotSpotter coverage zone. If the system had been operational, it might have accurately pinpointed the gunfire location, potentially reducing the response time to find the victim.
In contrast to Chico, Ald. William Hall, who represents the 8200 block of South Emerald Avenue, backed Johnson’s decision to remove ShotSpotter and played a key role in its discontinuation. He sent an ordinance that could have extended the system’s use to the City Council Rules Committee, effectively preventing a vote.
“We don’t need to be alerted when people get shot. We need to do whatever we can to keep people from shooting,” Hall said during the debate — a stance that the man who waited 17 minutes for emergency assistance on Sunday may find difficult to accept.
Since Johnson terminated the city’s contract with ShotSpotter after the 2024 Democratic National Convention, CWBChicago has identified 93 instances where gunshot victims reportedly faced long waits for emergency help in areas that were previously monitored by the system. This was either because no 911 calls were made to report the gunfire, or the information provided was too vague for officers to locate victims quickly.
These delays could be costing lives. According to data from HeyJackass.com, about 21% of people shot in Chicago this year have died from their injuries. Among the delayed-response cases identified by CWBChicago, the fatality rate is nearly three times higher, at 60%.
When ShotSpotter was dismantled, Johnson assured that a better gunfire detection system would be implemented to protect every neighborhood in Chicago. Nearly two years later, while the city has received proposals from several companies, no replacement has been announced.
About this series
As of 12:01 a.m. on September 23, 2024, Chicago ended its relationship with ShotSpotter, a gunfire detection system used in 12 of the city’s most violence-affected neighborhoods. Mayor Brandon Johnson steadfastly refused to reconsider dismantling ShotSpotter, despite requests from the majority of aldermen, many citizens, victims’ advocates, and his appointed police superintendent to keep it operational.
This reporting series, titled “Brandon’s Bodies,” aims to document cases of shooting victims and police investigations that might have benefited from gunshot detection technology.
The criteria for inclusion are a gunshot victim found outside in a location formerly 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.
