Bar in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood shut down after man fatally shot during fight
A bar on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Park community was shut down by Chicago police Tuesday morning, days after a fight broke out at a party in the bar and led to a fatal shooting.
Police said at 11:43 p.m., a fight broke out in a bar in the 2200 block of North Lincoln Avenue, near the six-way intersection with Webster Avenue and Larrabee Street/Geneva Terrace.
The fight spilled out of the bar, and outside, someone pulled a gun and shot a 30-year-old man, police said. The man, Malik McCorkle, was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he died.
Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) wrote Tuesday that the bar where the fight broke out was The Dime, at 2263 N. Lincoln Ave., which has now been closed. He says the bar has not done a good job of keeping people with guns away. The summary of the closure was due to the bar being a "public safety threat."
"This morning, following sustained advocacy and pressure from our office, Chicago Police Interim and Acting Superintendent Fred Waller ordered The Dime closed immediately under a Summary Closure Order," Knudsen wrote. "In partnership with the local community, my office has pushed for further restrictions and investigation of this bar due to several years of safety incidents."
Knudsen's office said the closure does not amount to a permanent revocation of The Dime's liquor license, which would be a longer process involving the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection and the Local Liquor Control Commission.
"My office will continue to advocate for that permanent step, building on our push earlier this summer for stronger restrictions on this stretch of Lincoln Avenue," Knudsen wrote.
Knudsen has also said police will step up patrols near the area and will have permanent patrols on weekends.
Residents like Gabe Akins say they've been dealing with the issue for the past two months.
"I think at this point there's been two shootings in the last six weeks. The bar needs to go," he said.
This comes after a shooting that left a 39-year-old woman critically wounded on the same strip of Lincoln Avenue last month. Residents in the area also took issue with activity at The Dime. They told CBS News Chicago they stay away from windows in case shots are fired from the huge parties that spill out into the street every weekend.
"And this is the heartbreaking piece of it, in all of these meetings we've had around this business, we could almost predict that this would happen again. And it happened again after last summer. And It happened again after June and here we are in July," Knudsen said.
CBS News Chicago has reached out to the owners of the Dime bar, but has yet to hear back.
Charges are pending against the suspected shooter, who they said was placed into custody after returning to the scene.
