Shaquita Bennett: Chicago Police, Task Force, and the Lawsuit

Shaquita Bennett was a 31-year-old woman shot in the head outside her South Side apartment on April 5, 2018, by her ex-boyfriend Deshawn Johnson, and a lawsuit later filed by her mother alleges that the Chicago Police Department ignored years of protective orders, at least ten 911 calls, and recorded death threats that should have kept Johnson in custody. Her case has been cited as one of the clearest examples of how Chicago police and the Cook County courts failed a domestic violence victim who did everything the system asked of her.

Who Shaquita Bennett Was and the Threat She Reported

Bennett ended her relationship with Johnson in the summer of 2013. According to the lawsuit her mother, Veardena Pryor, later filed in Cook County Circuit Court, Johnson began stalking, harassing, and threatening her within weeks of the breakup.¹

On August 19, 2013, Bennett obtained her first emergency order of protection, telling the court that Johnson posed a threat and had firearms. Nearly three years later, on July 5, 2016, she filed again, writing that she was “very scared because of past incidents” and had been staying away from her home because Johnson had been sitting outside it.² An emergency order issued the same day. Two months later, a plenary order barred Johnson from any contact with her for two years.¹

The Threats Police and Prosecutors Did Not Stop

On December 14, 2017, Johnson violated the plenary order by leaving Bennett a voicemail saying he would “blow her brains out.” He was arrested the next month and held on $10,000 bail. A judge then cut the bail in half, to $5,000, and Johnson was released.¹

While out on bond, according to the lawsuit, Johnson left Bennett 30 menacing voicemails, four of them containing explicit death threats. Bennett and others called 911 at least ten times to report the threats and the order violations.¹

On March 5, 2018, Johnson walked into the Walgreens where Bennett worked, an open violation of the active order. Bennett reported it and told a detective she wanted to press charges. The lawsuit alleges the officers assigned to the case did not investigate and did not arrest him.²

Eight days later, on March 13, 2018, Johnson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for violating the protective order in the December voicemail case. He was sentenced to five days of time already served, one year of probation, and domestic violence counseling. After the sentencing, the lawsuit says, Johnson called Bennett again and threatened to show up at her job and “go crazy.” She reported that call too.¹

The Shooting on South Clyde Avenue

About three weeks after that sentencing, on the morning of April 5, 2018, Bennett was shot in the head in the hallway outside her apartment in the 6900 block of South Clyde Avenue. She was pronounced dead at the scene.¹ Johnson, then 34, was arrested and charged with her murder.³ As of April 2019 he was being held without bail at the Cook County Jail.

The Family’s Lawsuit Against the City

On April 3, 2019, Pryor sued the Chicago Police Department in Cook County Circuit Court. The complaint alleges that CPD officers and 911 dispatchers failed to respond to Bennett’s repeated calls for protection, even as she filed multiple protective orders and reported Johnson’s violations on at least ten occasions.¹

The suit argues that the city failed to give Bennett the special protections required under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, pointing in particular to the Walgreens incident in March 2018. There, the lawsuit says, Bennett identified her abuser, reported a clear violation of an active order, and asked to pursue charges, and officers still did not investigate or arrest.² A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment when the lawsuit was reported, and the available reporting does not show a final resolution of the civil case.¹

A Task Force That Never Reached Her District

Chicago had a program on paper that was supposed to prevent killings like Bennett’s. In March 2014, Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched an intergovernmental domestic violence task force combining the Mayor’s Office, the Cook County State’s Attorney, CPD, and the Department of Family and Support Services. Its stated purpose was to identify high-risk households, improve police response, connect victims to services, and prioritize dangerous offenders.⁴

The program started in a single police district and reached only three districts out of the city’s 22. A Chicago Tribune investigation found it produced modest improvements in police report quality and delivered a seven-minute training to roughly 1,800 of CPD’s 13,000 officers, while internal reports to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority acknowledged ongoing “communication breakdowns” between police, prosecutors, and advocates. Bennett’s case was cited as evidence that the city’s response remained inadequate. Stephanie Love-Patterson of Connections for Abused Women and their Children told the Tribune, “Until there is more accountability for the perpetrators, we’ll continue to see those steady domestic homicide numbers.”²

What Changed After Her Death

Bennett’s very first protective order, in 2013, told the court Johnson had firearms. For years after her death, Illinois still had no reliable mechanism to take guns from someone under a protective order. That changed only after the July 2023 shooting of Karina Gonzalez and her 15-year-old daughter Daniela Alvarez by Gonzalez’s husband, who killed them despite an active order against him.⁵

The resulting legislation, House Bill 4144 or “Karina’s Law,” was signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker on February 10, 2025, and took effect May 11, 2025. It requires law enforcement to remove firearms from individuals subject to an order of protection when a court grants firearm removal as a remedy, and it lets petitioners request a search warrant for seizure that must be executed within 96 hours.⁶

The law closes one gap Bennett’s case exposed. It does not touch the others: officers who do not investigate reported violations, prosecutors who agree to reduced bond after a recorded death threat, and judges who sentence repeat violators to time served. Bennett filed the orders, reported the violations, called 911, cooperated with detectives, and asked for charges. At nearly every step, the response was not enough to keep her alive.

1
Chicago Sun-Times. CPD Didn’t Protect Woman From Ex-Boyfriend Now Charged With Her Murder, Lawsuit
2
Chicago Tribune. Chicago’s Effort to Help Domestic Violence Victims Has Fallen Short of Its Promises
3
WOWO. Chicago Suspect Wanted for Murder Arrested in Fort Wayne
4
City of Chicago. Inter-governmental Task Force Announces the Launch of a Pilot Program
5
WTTW. Report Shows 110% Rise in Illinois Domestic Violence Deaths, Advocates Call for Action
6
Capitol News Illinois. Pritzker Signs Karina’s Law to Remove Guns From Domestic Violence Situations