White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to give deposition in Rate Field shooting lawsuit

White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf will be deposed in a lawsuit stemming from a shooting at the ballpark during a game at Rate Field in August 2023, a Cook County judge ordered Friday.

Reinsdorf’s sworn testimony must be completed by July 31, under the order.

The circumstances around the shooting remain unknown nearly two years later.

A 42-year-old woman was shot in the right thigh, and a 26-year-old woman was grazed in the abdomen as they sat in the left-field bleachers during the fourth inning of the Aug. 25, 2023, game between the Sox and then-Oakland Athletics.

According to the police, a bullet was found in the hoodie of a third woman.

The older woman filed the lawsuit a year later against the White Sox, the Illinois Sports Facility Authority, which owns and operates Rate Field, and the team’s security company.

The woman, identified in the suit only as Jane Doe, accuses the team and stadium owners of negligence and says they allowed someone to bring a gun into the stadium. The plaintiff has denied that she brought a gun into the stadium and accidentally shot herself.

Days after the shooting, former interim Chicago police Supt. Fred Waller said investigators had “almost completely dispelled” any notion that the bullets might have been fired from outside the ballpark.

Later that week, Reinsdorf said he had spoken with Waller and that detectives hadn’t ruled out that the shots had come from outside the park.

“I don’t see any way in the world that the shots could have come from inside the ballpark,” Reinsdorf said at the time.

A spokesperson for the White Sox wouldn’t comment Friday.

The game continued after the shooting, but a postgame concert was canceled so investigators could examine the crime scene.

Reinsdorf, 89, who has owned the White Sox since 1981, said earlier this month that he and billionaire businessman Justin Ishbia have agreed to a potential long-term sale of the team.

A date for Reinsdorf’s deposition is expected to be settled within a week.