As another season of baseball begins, the end may be near in the yearslong legal saga stemming from a bizarre shooting in the bleachers during a White Sox home game in August 2023.
But more than two years after the shooting, the central question remains: Where did the gunfire originate?
The women who were shot and wounded allege the gunfire happened inside the stadium. The White Sox have steadfastly denied that’s the case, saying in recent court filings: “The record, including findings that the Chicago Police Department developed independently, strongly indicates that the bullet originated from outside the Ballpark.”
Several pretrial motions are still outstanding, even though the first case now is scheduled to go to trial in August, records show. During a consolidated hearing Wednesday in two pending cases heard at the Daley Center, Cook County Judge Sarah Johnson said she would move quickly.
“I want to make sure that we can put to bed the discovery issues,” Johnson said before scheduling another hearing in the case for early next month.
One pending motion stems from a request for documents related to the team’s security procedures during home games and evaluations of them, as well as communications between the team’s lawyers and those for Major League Baseball.
The White Sox argue that those records are privileged and shielded from litigation, and “none describe or document the operational activities on the August 25, 2023 date at issue.”
Depositions have taken place, including that of White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and the team’s director of event security, who also denied there was a gun in the ballpark. “Respondents operate under the strictest magnetometer sensitivity settings that Major League Baseball issued,” he told lawyers, and “every person entering the Ballpark passed through those magnetometers on the day of the incident, and that no firearm had ever (moved) past Ballpark security.”
Legal fight begins
The first lawsuit to stem from the shooting was filed in August 2024 by a “Jane Doe.”
The complaint came a year after she suffered a gunshot wound to her leg during the fourth inning of the Aug. 25, 2023, game between the White Sox and then-Oakland Athletics. Authorities initially said two women were shot while they were in the left field bleachers — one in the leg with the other suffering a graze wound — before a bullet landed in a third woman’s hood. No gun was ever recovered.
The woman hit in the leg, from the western suburbs, alleged negligence by the team and its security allowed a firearm to be brought into the stadium, since renamed Rate Field. A second lawsuit was filed last year by the two other women.
“The specific negligent act or omission that permitted a firearm to enter and be discharged within the stadium is peculiarly within the knowledge and control of Defendant White Sox and not Plaintiff,” the second lawsuit alleges.
White Sox events
The gates open for a game between the White Sox and Oakland Athletics on Aug. 26, 2023, at Guaranteed Rate Field, a day after a shooting injured two fans in the stands. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Though there are three plaintiffs suing the team over alleged injuries, CPD records indicate only two people suffered gunshot wounds. In court Wednesday, an attorney for the White Sox said one of the three plaintiffs, the one wearing the hood, “had no personal injuries.”
Reinsdorf was ordered to sit for his deposition last year. An attorney for the team previously said the questioning would center on comments Reinsdorf made to the media in the days after the shooting, as well as the team’s decision to not call off the rest of the game after the shooting occurred, though a postgame concert with Vanilla Ice was called off.
Days after the shooting, Reinsdorf told reporters that he conferred with officials from CPD, including former interim Superintendent Fred Waller.
“They haven’t come to a final conclusion, but have done a lot of investigation,” Reinsdorf previously said. “We have gathered a lot of facts, and, without getting into the detail because I don’t want to influence the police’s decision, but the fact is based upon the information available to us, I see virtually no possibility that the gunshots came from within the ballpark.”
However, that same week, Waller told reporters: “We’re dispelling a lot of things … (A shot) coming from outside is something we’ve almost completely dispelled. We’re still looking at every avenue. It’s still under investigation. Something from inside, it could’ve happened that way. We’re looking at every avenue, exploring every lead and everything that we can get.”
Court records show Reinsdorf’s deposition was completed in January and records related to his testimony remain under a judicial seal.
Legal search for answers
Court filings show the Police Department previously received a subpoena to allow for the inspection of evidence collected at the crime scene, including a bullet fragment, blood swabs and articles of clothing worn by Jane Doe.
Chicago sports radio host Peggy Kusinski was also deposed, records show. Shortly after the shooting, Kusinski, without citing sources, posted on social media that one of the victims “reportedly snuck the gun in past metal detectors hiding it in the folds of her belly fat.”
The parent company of ShotSpotter — the gunshot detection software previously used by CPD — was also ordered to turn over records related to a shooting notification about a mile south of the ballpark. The move came as the team continues to try to bolster its position that the bullet that struck the women wound up in the stands after being fired somewhere outside.
All the legal fighting has meant not a lot for the team’s fans. The White Sox announced no security enhancements in the years since the incident.
This year’s first home game on the South Side is set for April 2 against the Toronto Blue Jays.