The Chicago White Sox on Thursday will, at last, give fans something to think about besides the historically abysmal 2024 season.
But as another opening day arrives, a mystery from the 2023 season still lingers.
How were two women shot while sitting in the bleachers of the former Guaranteed Rate Field that August?
Nineteen months have passed and there’s little clarity. No arrests have been made. Police sources previously told the Tribune that no weapon was recovered and one of the injured women — who has since sued the team — declined to cooperate with investigators.
White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and the team’s attorneys have maintained that the gunfire came from outside the ballpark, now known as Rate Field, essentially claiming a “parabolic arc” theory.
The Chicago Police Department’s investigation remains open, though, according to a department spokesperson. And, as of Wednesday, the city’s criminal incident data portal still listed the ballpark as the shooting’s address of occurrence.
One of the two injured women filed a lawsuit last year against the White Sox, the team’s in-house security firm and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the body that oversees state-owned Rate Field.
Identified only as “Jane Doe,” the woman alleges that negligent security practices allowed a firearm to be brought inside the ballpark.
The lawsuit claims the woman was “shot by a firearm weapon while sitting in the stands at Guaranteed Rate Field” and “the firearm that shot the (the woman) was discharged within the premises of Guaranteed Rate Field.”
In a response filed in November, attorneys for the White Sox said the team “lack(s) sufficient information to either admit or deny” that the woman was shot while she was in the bleachers. Further, White Sox attorneys “deny the allegations” that the gun was discharged in the park during a game.
In January, attorneys for the injured woman filed a motion to compel the White Sox and their security to respond to pre-trial interrogatories and documents requests. Court records show at least six witness depositions are scheduled for May.
A spokesperson for the White Sox declined to comment further. The team’s season opener is at home Thursday.
John Malm, an attorney for the injured woman who brought the lawsuit, previously said in a statement, “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.”
