Nearly one year after two women were shot in the bleachers of Guaranteed Rate Field, a lawsuit was filed against the White Sox and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority alleging that negligent security practices allowed a firearm to be brought inside the ballpark last season.
The complaint was filed last week in Cook County Circuit Court by one of the two women wounded by gunfire during the Aug. 25, 2023, White Sox home game against the Oakland A’s. The lawsuit contends that the gun was fired by someone within the confines of Guaranteed Rate Field.
A representative for the White Sox declined to comment on the pending litigation, and a representative for ISFA did not respond to an inquiry.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department said Monday that the investigation of the shooting remains open.
An attorney for one of the women has told the Tribune his client did not bring the weapon into the ballpark. It was not immediately clear which of the injured women filed the suit.
“We have reviewed photographic evidence and X-rays of our client’s injuries with firearms and medical experts who confirm the gunshot wound our client sustained was not self-inflicted and was not the result of her accidentally discharging a firearm,” Malm said in the wake of the shooting.
Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the White Sox, a team currently mired in a 100-loss season, said two weeks after the shooting that it was highly unlikely a gun was somehow brought into Guaranteed Rate Field.
“They’re still investigating,” Reinsdorf said last year. “I don’t want to get into specific facts while they’re investigating but have really done a deep dive into this and I don’t see any way in the world that the shots could have come from inside the ballpark. Let’s let the police continue with their investigation. At this point all the superintendent is prepared to say is they have not ruled out that they came from outside the ballpark.”
