Four people were fatally shot and 14 more injured Wednesday night outside a River North restaurant, in a mass shooting Mayor Brandon Johnson called “senseless and cowardly.”
The drive-by shooting happened as crowds gathered outside after an album-release party at Artis Restaurant and Lounge, 311 W. Chicago Ave.
A car pulled up outside the restaurant as at least one gunman opened fire on a crowd of people around 11 p.m., Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling told reporters in a news conference with Johnson Thursday afternoon.
“They didn’t care who was struck. And in a matter of seconds they were able to shoot 18 people, taking four lives,” Snelling said. No arrests have been reported.
The restaurant where the shooting occurred is the same address of a nightclub the city shut down over two years ago after a fatal mass shooting happened outside.
Snelling said the city has already issued a summary closure of the new restaurant, which opened in April.
“Right now it’s been closed — until we get to the bottom of this,” Snelling said.
The shooting happened at the end of a party celebrating the release of Chicago drill rapper Mello Buckzz’ latest album “Hollyhood,” a witness told the Sun-Times. In an Instragram post, Mello Buckzz said her significant other was one of the people shot in the attack. “I dont wish this typa pain on nobody,” she wrote in another post.
Police said the target of the attack was likely the rapper, although she had already left the venue when the shooting erupted, according to a law enforcement source. According to a source, occupants of a black Honda Accord initially circled around the front of the club to see who was there. When the car came back around, shots were fired from it before it sped away east.
A witness told the Sun-Times he heard at least two dozen shots before several police officers rushed to the scene.
Handgun and rifle rounds were recovered, and several shell casings were seen inside and outside the club. Workers for the building’s landlord were outside Thursday cleaning up blood and debris. They picked up a red carpet soaked in blood and posters advertising the party.
Roger Tanner was passing the scene in a cab when he saw a cop carrying a young woman covered in blood over his shoulders. She had been shot, and he was rushing her to a waiting ambulance, Tanner said.
“It was a chaotic scene,” Tanner said Thursday morning outside Artis. “It was so many young people. I thought they were having fun. This seems like a nice place.”
At the news conference, Snelling said the incident was “isolated,” and that the space was rented out specifically for the event. He said he could not speak to the “culture” of the event, and said the venue had already been closed as police continue their investigation.
Johnson called the restaurant a “safe space,” particularly for the LGBTQ+ community, and he said it was not a club.
Johnson said he was “frustrated and angered by this cowardly act of violence,” one of two mass shootings in the hours heading into the long holiday weekend.
Just days before, Johnson had boasted about the double-digit reduction in homicides and shootings that saw Chicago record fewer than 200 deaths in the first six months of the year.
“Shootings like these are a tragic reminder of how far we still have to go as a city,” the mayor said. He said he was “frustrated and angered by this senseless and cowardly act of violence.”
“Shooting into a crowd is unacceptable, and we will not stand for that. … We are still determined — more determined now than ever to not allow these events to take us backward. We cannot allow these types of acts of violence to escalate or be normalized,” he said.
Police said victims were taken to several hospitals, including Stroger, Northwestern Memorial, Mount Sinai and Illinois Masonic.
A man, 24, was shot in his chest, and a man, 25, was shot in his head. Both were pronounced dead at Stroger. Two women, 26 and 27, were fatally shot in their chests and pronounced dead at Northwestern.
Four women were taken in critical condition to Stroger and Mount Sinai: a 31-year-old shot several times, a 24-year-old shot in her back, a 25-year-old shot in her leg and a 21-year-old shot in her face.
Ten others, ages 24 to 32, are in good condition at nearby hospitals, police said.
Several people sat outside the Stroger Hospital emergency entrance Thursday morning, some discussing how they raced to the hospital after hearing about the shooting. They declined to speak with a reporter.
Aradhya Seth, 25, lives in the high-rise next to the restaurant. He said he was on a phone call with friends Wednesday night when he heard sirens. His 12th-floor apartment looks onto Orleans Street, and he watched the block fill with police cars and ambulances.
“There are police sirens all the time, but the intensity of it was really high. Like, they were like 10, 20 and then kept on increasing,” Seth said.
At the gas station on Orleans Street and Chicago Avenue, Seth said he saw and heard people sobbing.
“They were just uncontrollably sobbing right at that station. I’ll never forget that,” Seth said. “It was just so heartbreaking. And I was so helpless.”
Rowena Mendez showed up for her shift around 3 a.m. at the Dunkin’ next door to Artis. At first, she said she thought the gruesome scene outside was a movie set. The block recently had film notices posted for a movie shoot.
“I said to my boyfriend, it looks so real,” Mendez said.
But she quickly realized it wasn’t staged. Blood was splattered over the sidewalk. Bloody footprints led away from the restaurant. Shoes, hats and clothing were scattered. One of the windows at the Dunkin’ was shattered.
As the attack began to unfold, an officer came over police radio.
“We got a possible shots fired at Chicago and Wells. … Chicago and Wells … possible shots fired,” an officer said.
“10-4,” a dispatcher replied. “We just got a ticket of a person shot … several people shot,” the dispatcher said. “No offender, but there’s three people down.”
“Drive-by. … Shots fired from a black car last seen headed eastbound,” the dispatcher said.
“There’s a large party,” the dispatcher said. “CFD is rolling.”
Another mass shooting happened at the same address in 2022, when a person was killed and three were injured outside the former Hush Chicago nightclub. The city shut down the club after that shooting, deeming it a “public safety threat.”
The Artis Restaurant and Lounge opened in April, according to its social media pages. In a statement, the restaurant’s owners said the shooting has shaken them deeply.
“Artis was created as a safe space,” the statement reads. “A space where Black, Brown, Queer, and allied communities could gather, be celebrated, and feel at home in River North. We’ve always led with that mission. And what happened last night disrupted it in the most painful way.”
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose ward includes the shooting site, said he was “furious” at the drive-by shooting outside a shuttered nightclub that was supposed to be operating as a BYOB restaurant.
Compounding his frustration, he said, was the fact that Reilly and constituents had worked to obtain a closure and license revocation of the previous nightclub at 311 W. Chicago, after the earlier mass shooting a few years ago.
A moratorium on late-hour liquor licenses prevented any new nightclub from opening in the 42nd Ward.
The new restaurant owners, who had assured the city that the new venue would “support local artists, foster inclusivity and serve as a hub for connection, used their venue to promote the release of a new rap album, triggering a “devastating act of violence just weeks after they opened as a BYOB restaurant,” Reilly said.
“What’s frustrating is that a food license was issued to the operators a few months back, but there was no liquor license for this space. … They were operating as a BYOB establishment. There aren’t really any stringent rules or regulations for BYOB. We believe that’s how the system was gamed here,” Reilly said.
Based on shell casings recovered at the scene, police believe there may have been as many as three shooters responsible for the attack that appears to be gang-related, Reilly said.
After talking to police, Reilly said, “Their hunches are this was gang-related and that there were gang members at this venue that were being targeted by the drive-by shooting.”
Contributing: Tom Schuba, Violet Miller and Janani Jana
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
