15-year-old shot in Englewood says it happened on a block previously served by ShotSpotter

CHICAGO — A 15-year-old boy was shot in the chest while standing near a sidewalk in Englewood on Friday afternoon, Chicago police said.

CPD and fire department personnel responded to a call of a person shot in the 1000 block of West Garfield around 2:15 p.m., according to dispatch records. The boy, who suffered a single gunshot wound, told officers the shooting occurred near 59th Street and Sangamon Street, about a half-mile from where he met first responders. He was in good condition at Comer Children’s Hospital.

There were no calls of shots fired in the area around the time he was injured. ShotSpotter, the gunfire detection system, operated in the neighborhood until Mayor Brandon Johnson ended the city’s relationship with the company on September 23.

Officers searched the area of 59th and Sangamon for a crime scene but found nothing. ShotSpotter would have been a valuable tool because it could have narrowed the search area to within a few feet of where the shots were fired. Alternatively, if the boy is mistaken about where the shooting occurred, ShotSpotter could have directed police to the correct location. The system could also tell them if no shots were fired in the area so they could redirect the investigation.

Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th), the City Council’s Black Caucus chair, represents the neighborhood. She was part of the City Council’s two-thirds majority that tried to keep the ShotSpotter network active without Johnson’s support. 

Coleman joined several of her colleagues and community leaders in October to announce that business leaders had offered $2.5 million toward the cost of bringing ShotSpotter back online. Under a deeply discounted contract renewal proposed by ShotSpotter in September, the money would cover about three months of service.

“We are both saddened and disappointed in terms of where we are at with any sound detecting system that could help alert CPD to save lives in communities like Englewood, Auburn Gresham, far Southeast Side, North Lawndale, and the South and West Sides, which impacts Black and Brown people,” Coleman said at the announcement.

So far, the Johnson administration has not taken the business leaders up on the offer.

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.