Man Found Unconscious with Gunshot Wounds in Chicago Lawn
A man is in critical condition after being found unconscious, suffering from gunshot wounds in Chicago Lawn on Monday evening. Nobody called 911 to report gunfire, and, in fact, the person who found the man wasn’t even sure he had been shot.
The shooting occurred in an area that used to be served by the city’s ShotSpotter network, a tool that could have alerted first responders to the shooting well before the man was found unresponsive. Mayor Brandon Johnson, acting against the wishes of most Chicagoans and two-thirds of the City Council, pulled the plug on the gunfire detection system in September.
A passerby found the shooting victim lying near a gas station in the 3000 block of West 63rd Street around 8:33 p.m. He was bleeding from the mouth, but the 911 caller wasn’t sure what happened to the man.
By the time police arrived, the Chicago Fire Department had already scooped the man up and taken him to Christ Hospital. He sustained gunshot wounds to his jaw and mouth. Police said he was about 50 years old, but he remained a “John Doe” as of Monday night.
Video showed the victim stumble up to the gas station and collapse. Cops followed a blood trail for over a block until it ended in the middle of 64th Street near Richmond Street.
The police did not find any shell casings, potentially valuable pieces of evidence that were much easier to locate with ShotSpotter’s ability to pinpoint locations where shots are fired.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) represents the neighborhood where Monday’s shooting occurred. He has been an outspoken supporter of ShotSpotter and a vocal critic of Johnson’s decision to end the city’s relationship with the company.
“None of this is about policing safely, constitutionally, or accurately,” Lopez said recently. “All of this is about dismantling the apparatus of policing. If you can’t defund and abolish, then you will destroy and dismember, and that’s exactly what they’re trying to do.”
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, victim’s 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.
