Chicago police were canvassing for victims and evidence after a person was shot during a large gathering near Ferdinand and Lawler in the Austin neighborhood early Sunday, August 9, when officers spotted a Jeep driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The traffic stop that followed turned up multiple loaded handguns, including a Glock 17 fitted with an illegal auto switch that lets a semi-automatic pistol fire like a machine gun. The occupants were taken into custody on weapons violations.
The shooting happened around 2:31 a.m. and quickly escalated into a 10-1, according to the 15th District – Austin, the Chicago Police Department's community policing office for the district. In department radio terminology, a 10-1 signals that an officer needs immediate backup, a code that clears the airwaves and pulls in rapid assistance units from across the city, according to CBS News. That urgency explains why officers were still combing the area for evidence when the wrong-way Jeep caught their attention.
Real-time local crime monitoring reported that officers recovered more than 30 shell casings near the intersection following the shooting, according to CrimeLocal, a volume of gunfire that underscores just how chaotic the gathering had become before police arrived.
What Officers Found in the Jeep
Along with the Glock 17 equipped with the auto switch, officers recovered a Sig Sauer SP2022 chambered in .40 caliber, a Smith & Wesson MP40 also in .40 caliber, and a Glock 10x 9mm, per the 15th District's account. All of the weapons were loaded. It remains unclear whether any of the Jeep's occupants were responsible for firing the shots that left more than 30 casings scattered near Ferdinand and Lawler, an open question the department's post does not address.
The auto switch is the detail carrying the heaviest legal weight. Under Illinois law, possessing a machine gun or a conversion device like an auto switch is a Class 2 felony punishable by three to seven years in state prison, according to the Illinois General Assembly. Federal law treats the same devices even more harshly: under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o), possessing a Glock switch or auto sear carries penalties of up to 10 years in federal prison, per the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It is not yet clear whether state or federal prosecutors will take the lead on the switch-related charges.
A Non-Probationable Charge Under the Pretrial Fairness Act
Illinois eliminated cash bail in 2023 through its Pretrial Fairness Act, but the law still allows for mandatory pretrial detention on high-level weapons offenses. Possessing a machine gun or a firearm fitted with an auto switch is classified as a non-probationable felony that qualifies defendants for that mandatory detention, according to a review by The Briefing.
The Austin post also comes amid a broader legal fight over the devices themselves. In 2024, the city of Chicago sued Glock, alleging the manufacturer's handgun design makes it too easy to convert into a fully automatic weapon using cheap aftermarket switches, the NRA-ILA reported. ATF data cited by the Spodek Law Group shows nationwide recoveries of these conversion devices jumped 570 percent between the 2012–2016 and 2017–2021 periods, and Chicago police alone have recovered nearly 1,200 Glock pistols fitted with auto sears over a two-year span.
Part of a Violent Stretch in Austin
The Ferdinand and Lawler incident capped an already bloody few days in the 15th District, which covers Chicago's 7.16-square-mile Austin neighborhood from its headquarters at 5701 W. Madison St. under Commander Nichelle Fraction. Just hours earlier that same night, a separate shooting on the 5000 block of West Ferdinand Street sent a 24-year-old man walking up to officers seeking help, as Hoodline reported in a South Austin shooting nearby. Two days before that, a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed on the 4900 block of West Washington Boulevard, a case Hoodline covered in a report on the unsolved teen shooting, with no arrests announced as of that story's publication. The same weekend also saw a separate multi-victim shooting near Leclaire and Le Moyne in North Austin that left several victims in critical condition.
The 15th District – Austin reminded residents that its community policing page is not staffed around the clock and urged anyone with an emergency to call 911 directly rather than waiting for a response through social media. Beyond the immediate arrests, key questions remain unresolved, including the condition of the initial shooting victim from the large gathering and whether investigators can tie the Jeep's occupants directly to the gunfire that left dozens of shell casings behind.
