Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Drip, drip, drip
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax      Advertise Here      About     Exclusive Subscriber Content     Updated Posts    Contact Rich Miller
CapitolFax.com
To subscribe to Capitol Fax, click here.
Drip, drip, drip

Friday, Sep 29, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Tom Schuba

Fifty minutes after two women were somehow wounded by gunshots Aug. 25, [the now-former commander of the CPD’s patrol bureau John Spellman] informed Sox staff that Patrol Chief Brian McDermott wanted to “stop the game for public safety reasons,” according to a police report.

Spellman had been serving as a security supervisor for At Your Service LLC, the company that guards Sox park and is controlled by team executives, according to law enforcement sources.

There was concern that Spellman might have prioritized the interests of the team over the department and stalled in delivering McDermott’s request to pause the game, a source said. He also didn’t have the superintendent’s approval to work the security job, as required by a departmental order. […]

In an appearance last week on the Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman Show, [former acting police superintendent Fred Waller] wouldn’t comment on whether Spellman had been given approval to work for At Your Service. He also sidestepped a question about whether Spellman had disobeyed a direct order from McDermott.

Spellman was demoted and sent to the Morgan Park District on Waller’s last day in office, according to the report.

Also, points to Schuba for calling it “Sox park.”

...Adding… Related…

* White Sox ballpark shooting victim breaks silence, speaks exclusively with ABC7: “I heard a loud pop,” the victim said. “I felt an impact on my leg, and I looked down and I did not see anything. I thought somebody, you know, in the crowd had thrown a beer can or thrown something, bottled water or something, and there was nothing there.” But then, someone nearby noticed a lot of blood, and she looked down and saw her right leg was bleeding. “It wasn’t until a couple moments later that somebody mentioned that there was a bullet found a couple of rows down,” she said. “And at that moment was when I realized I had been shot. I panicked. I completely went into panic mode, knowing that there was a bullet fired nearby us. And at that point I didn’t know if it was there was going to be more gunfire. I didn’t know anything. I was terrified. I wanted to get out of that area because I knew somebody in the immediate area had a gun on them.”

       

35 Comments
  1. - Precinct Captain - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:14 am:

    Corruption, double dealing, and misconduct in the Chicago Police Department!? What’s next, gambling in Casablanca?


  2. - Friendly Bob Adams - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:20 am:

    The only real detail that matters to me is finding out how a gun got into the park. Getting into the park has become a nightmare and a meaningless one if guns are getting in.


  3. - Homebody - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:22 am:

    This may be a stupid technical question, but what is the basis for the authority of police to order the stoppage of a business activity during an investigation on site? I assume it exists since you don’t necessarily want people contaminating a crime scene, but like what is the extent of the authority to order the entire game stopped?

    But separate from that, if the right wing approach to gun control (i.e. have no control, and in fact have even more guns out there) persists, there will just be more and more incidents like this. We’ll end up shutting things down constantly because of idiots with guns.


  4. - Roadrager - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:23 am:

    At the rate (no pun intended) details are coming out in this case, we should almost have an idea of who got shot and how when Mayor Vallas orders an abrupt shutdown of the entire investigation in 2027.


  5. - hisgirlfriday - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:26 am:

    Is the William D. Waters who is the manager of At Your Service L.L.C. the same person as the Bill Waters who is vice president of finance for the White Sox?


  6. - Stones - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:29 am:

    Just another black mark on an incredibly disappointing White Sox season.


  7. - Telly - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:29 am:

    Craig Wall did an interview with the shooting victim.

    This keeps getting weirder. Sure seems like it’s gonna end up like most shooting cases in Chicago: unsolved.

    https://abc7chicago.com/white-sox-shooting-victim-interview-guaranteed-rate-field-chicago-public-schools/13839792/


  8. - Frida’s boss - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:33 am:

    Is kind of strange that they didn’t stop the game but they did stop the Vanilla Ice concert.


  9. - Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:35 am:

    === the same person as the Bill Waters===

    Yes.


  10. - Anon 9:34 - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:37 am:

    I find it interesting that Jerry Reinsdorf and lobbyist extraordinaire John Kelly own a security business together, yet the good people at Sox Park use another firm “controlled by team executives”.

    Are Sentinel Security, the firm owned by Kelly and Reinsdorf, and At Your Service interconnected? Enquiring minds want to know.


  11. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:38 am:

    If I’m looking at this… it was about the coverup.

    No not that coverup, the coverup of someone doing something they weren’t authorized to be doing and this incident would finally highlight it… and that was the “bad”

    If you stop a game, that’s even a bigger hotter spotlight. You stop “Ice, Ice, Baby”, it’s merely a footnote. Right?

    No. Now it’ll play out. The story will devolve.


  12. - Shytown - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:39 am:

    I’m still marveling at the fact that Waller was able to sidestep a question from Fran Spielman.


  13. - Amalia - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:41 am:

    yeah, so that is messed up. I’ll be impressed if the 26 year old woman gets interviewed. isn’t she the one with the marks on her abdomen that are burn like?


  14. - The Truth - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:44 am:

    It’s so obvious that the gun was an undercover police officer’s. Got waved through by security. The “stuck in fat folds” one-source “report” was so nonsensical, it was insulting.


  15. - vern - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:45 am:

    === He also sidestepped a question about whether Spellman had disobeyed a direct order from McDermott ===

    If Spellman was working for the Sox/At Your Service that night, how could McDermott give him a direct order? Chain of command gets really murky when the guy in charge of security works for both the police and the team.


  16. - Louis G Atsaves - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:55 am:

    A gun in the ballpark, two women shot, and for the public safety of all in attendance, and CPD wanted to stop the game, or requested the game be stopped? After a month of doubletalk by all concerned, this nonsense is just getting worse.


  17. - James the Intolerant - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:56 am:

    Please Jerry, sell the team.


  18. - Larry Bowa Jr. - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 9:59 am:

    “It’s so obvious that the gun was an undercover police officer’s.”

    I haven’t been to a Sox game in about 10 years. Is it hard to believe you could get a handgun in? Back then it would have been pretty easy.
    Not surprising that Jerry Reinsdorf would insult the public’s intelligence with his insistence that the gunfire came from outside the stadium. That’s an absurd claim to have made and sadly typical of the contempt he has for the general public that has made him a billionaire.


  19. - Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 10:05 am:

    ===Back then it would have been pretty easy.===

    Not so much any longer.

    As an aside, I went to Fenway this summer. No metal detectors.


  20. - Stuck in Celliniland - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 10:10 am:

    =As an aside, I went to Fenway this summer. No metal detectors.=

    I thought from 9/11 to this day that anyone going to stadiums, arenas, and other large-scale events had to go through security and metal detectors, etc.


  21. - EP1082 - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 10:30 am:

    What’s the reason we don’t know more about this? Is it because attendance is so bad there were no witnesses?


  22. - Nope - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 10:33 am:

    There is certainly a coverup here, but it’s not because a police officer was involved. If this was a negligent discharge incident involving a cop, it would have come out immediately.


  23. - Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 10:34 am:

    ===Is it because attendance is so bad ===

    Take a breath.

    The place had tons of people because of a concert that was to follow. The game went on, but the concert was canceled.


  24. - Larry Bowa Jr. - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 10:41 am:

    “If this was a negligent discharge incident involving a cop, it would have come out immediately.”

    I’d agree if they were on duty in uniform when the negligent discharge takes place.
    Not sure I believe anyone employed by CPD has ever voluntarily reported a negligent discharge that occurred off duty. All kinds of incentives running against that.


  25. - Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 10:42 am:

    ===There is certainly a coverup here, but it’s not because a police officer was involved===

    CPD already covered up the fact that Spellman was not approved to work security. Not saying there’s definitely more to CPD’s coverup, but they don’t have a whole lot of credibility on this topic right now so it can’t be ruled out.


  26. - don the legend - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 11:10 am:

    ==I thought from 9/11 to this day that anyone going to stadiums, arenas, and other large-scale events had to go through security and metal detectors, etc.==

    Stuck: Since you say you’ll never go to another large gathering post Covid, it should not impact you one way or the other. :)


  27. - Pundent - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 11:35 am:

    =The place had tons of people because of a concert that was to follow.=

    You know you’re a bad team when people only show up to see Vanilla Ice. I’m imagining a lot of disappointed people with mullets and parachute pants leaving the stadium mumbling “word to your mother.”


  28. - Telly - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 11:42 am:

    == Not surprising that Jerry Reinsdorf would insult the public’s intelligence with his insistence that the gunfire came from outside the stadium. That’s an absurd claim… ==

    While I agree that Reinsdorf often insults our intelligence, this would not be the first time a bullet fired into the air outside the ballpark struck a fan inside the stadium. It’s an unlikely scenario, but not impossible:

    https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/9/1/23856073/white-sox-shooting-stray-bullet-history-of-other-ballpark-shootings

    And while the possibility of wider cover-up by CPD certainly can’t be dismissed, if they were trying to protect one of there own (say an off-duty cop who dropped his gun nearby) wouldn’t they be publicly embracing the shot-fired-outside-the-park theory?


  29. - Pundent - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 12:04 pm:

    =this would not be the first time a bullet fired into the air outside the ballpark struck a fan inside the stadium=

    In the leg in the middle of a row of seats? Keep in mind the initial thought was that the wound may have been self-inflicted given its location.


  30. - Levois - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 12:23 pm:

    I will also offer kudos to reference to Sox Park as a Cubs fan as I hate these corporate names to New Comiskey Park. And sorry to not talk a lot about this unfortunate incident there.


  31. - 47th Ward - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 12:29 pm:

    ===the initial thought was that the wound may have been self-inflicted given its location.===

    That is still my operating assumption. One of the two women either brought in the gun and caused it to discharge, or they know the person who did. But they’ve lawyered up.

    Curious that they haven’t filed a suit against the White Sox though. At least not yet anyway. If I was injured like that, and had nothing to do with it nor any knowledge of how it happened, I’d sue the pants off the White Sox. If for no other reason than to get answers to why this happened and to help make sure it can’t happen to anyone else ever again.

    There will be more to come. And I might even be proven wrong about who is responsible. I can’t believe it’s been this long with so little new information and no charges yet.


  32. - Regular democrat - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 12:51 pm:

    Exempt members cannot hold outside employment and Spellman well aware of it. To be at such a public place working a “ side job” says a lot about his judgement. Not the smartest idea. I would suspect it pretty obvious to the investigators what really happened but in usual fashion CPD will cover it up for a well healed connected person


  33. - Frida's boss - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 1:10 pm:

    So Sox Park has cameras and metal detectors at their entrances.
    Why not just go through the footage and find the women when they came in? You’ll be able to see if they got waved through without the metal detector. That said you can also see from cameras who were in that section all around them. Traceback their entry into the stadium as well. Did they go through the detectors or were they waved through?


  34. - The Magnificent Purple Walnut - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 2:27 pm:

    Lots of negatives in this story. Possible unauthorized secondary employment by the Patrol Chief, two injured individuals, not a lot of transparency on what happened. I prefer to think the glass if half full. No Vanilla Ice Concert.


  35. - Telly - Friday, Sep 29, 23 @ 2:58 pm:

    == Curious that they haven’t filed a suit against the White Sox though. At least not yet anyway. If I was injured like that, and had nothing to do with it nor any knowledge of how it happened, I’d sue the pants off the White Sox. ==

    Good point. I found it curious that the woman who was grazed in the abdomen refused medical attention at the scene.


Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.


* Isabel’s afternoon roundup
* Save the date!
* Energy Storage Can Minimize Major Price Spikes
* Trial gives glimpse into how Madigan managed his members
* Pritzker announces $72 million in medical debt relief for nearly 53K Illinois residents
* AG Raoul warns Mayor Johnson to reverse police reform budget cuts or risk sanctions
* Madigan trial roundup: Defense attacks credibility of ex-ComEd executive
* Senate President puts hold on bill to protect key aquifers from carbon sequestration
* Showcasing The Retailers Who Make Illinois Work
* Open thread
* Isabel’s morning briefing
* SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today's edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
* Live coverage
* Selected press releases (Live updates)
* Trump border czar pick has message for Pritzker: 'Game on'
* Yesterday's stories

Support CapitolFax.com
Visit our advertisers...

...............

...............

...............

...............

...............

...............


Loading


Main Menu
Home
Illinois
YouTube
Pundit rankings
Obama
Subscriber Content
Durbin
Burris
Blagojevich Trial
Advertising
Updated Posts
Polls

Archives
November 2024
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004

Blog*Spot Archives
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005

Syndication

RSS Feed 2.0
Comments RSS 2.0




Hosted by MCS SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax Advertise Here Mobile Version Contact Rich Miller