Another Shotspotter Miss

Only a critical wounding at this time:

• A jogger found a man shot and critically injured in Hyde Park on Thursday morning, but the victim may have gone undiscovered for more than 45 minutes because the mayor disconnected the local ShotSpotter network in 2024, and the only call about gunfire in the area was not precise enough for police to locate him.

  At about 4:06 a.m., a 911 caller reported hearing three shots fired near 55th Street and Cornell Avenue and seeing a car speeding away eastbound on 55th Street, according to CPD dispatch records. Officers responded and searched near the intersection, but did not find anything unusual.

  More than 45 minutes later, at 4:54 a.m., police were sent to investigate a person shot call in the 5400 block of South Cornell Avenue after a jogger discovered a 31-year-old man shot near Cornell Park. Officers found the victim with two gunshot wounds to his chest, one to his back, and one to his arm. CPD said he was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition.

  Police located three shell casings in the grass next to the street, near where the man was found. That detail suggests ShotSpotter would have pinpointed the location for first responders had the system not been deactivated by the mayor.

It seems the victim was a CCL holder, which is too bad. We're convinced the only way crime is going to go down significantly is with citizens doing the job that police aren't allowed to do any more - removing criminals from circulation.