A 25-year-old man died Sunday after Chicago police spent 17 minutes searching for him following a 911 call that dropped before the caller could give an exact address. Devon Jones was found on the 13100 block of South Lankley Avenue and was later pronounced dead at University of Chicago Hospital, according to CPD and medical examiner records. His death is now fueling renewed criticism over the city’s 2024 decision to shut down its ShotSpotter gunshot detection network.
The case is one of 93 instances of lengthy emergency-response waits that CWBChicago has identified since the city disconnected ShotSpotter. Jones was shot at Altgeld Gardens around 3:37 am Sunday, and a woman who called 911 to report hearing gunfire believed the shots came from a nearby lot, but her call disconnected before she could pinpoint the location. Officers searched the housing complex after hearing gunfire themselves, ultimately finding Jones 17 minutes after her initial call, per the outlet’s reporting.
A Second Delayed Response Hours Later
A second shooting unfolded roughly two hours later, around 5:16 am, near the 8200 block of South Emerald Avenue in Auburn Gresham. A man called 911 to report he had been shot near 82nd Street and South Emerald Avenue, but officers didn’t find him — on a porch in the 8200 block — until 10 minutes after his call. Officers located three shell casings and a gun in front of the house before beginning lifesaving measures. That victim, in serious condition, was taken to Christ Hospital. Both shootings occurred in areas that were formerly covered by ShotSpotter, the same report notes.
CWBChicago’s analysis found that 60 percent of victims in its identified delayed-response cases died from their injuries — a fatality rate the outlet says is nearly three times higher than Chicago’s overall rate, where about 21 percent of shooting victims die, according to HeyJackass.com data cited in the same account. The outlet attributes the delays in these cases to witnesses being able to provide police only general shooting locations rather than precise addresses — the exact gap ShotSpotter sensors were designed to close.
The Long Political Fight Over ShotSpotter
Mayor Brandon Johnson disconnected Chicago’s ShotSpotter network in September 2024, following through on a 2023 campaign pledge, with the contract formally ending on September 23, 2024, shortly after that year’s Democratic National Convention. At the time, the system had been deployed in 12 of the city’s most violence-impacted neighborhoods. Johnson promised to find a better gunfire detection system, but the city has announced no replacement and installed none in the nearly two years since…