Club Where Murders Took Place Lacked Liquor License

CHICAGO (STMW) - The South Side motorcycle club where two men were shot dead and five others wounded Sunday during a 48-hour booze-fueled New Year's Eve party was ordered to stop serving alcohol two-years ago by the city, officials said Monday.

But though the Hawks Motorcycle Club had no liquor license and apparently flouted the 2008 cease and desist order, city officials took no further action against it, Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection spokeswoman Efrat Stein said.

The suspected shooter -- who opened fire after an earlier dispute with Hawks members during the party at the club house at 149 West 75th St.-- remained in police custody Monday night but had not been charged.

Emmitt Suddoth, 38, who was nicknamed "World" and was the club's president, died of a single gunshot wound to the back, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. Bryant Glass, 39, was shot multiple times in the chest as the party ended in a hail of gunfire around 1:40 a.m. Sunday.

The case highlighted how little is known by law enforcement officials about black motorcycle clubs like the Hawks, according to former Chicago Police gangs investigator Joe Sparks.

While the criminal activities of white so-called "1 Percenter" gangs like the Hells Angels and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club are well understood, black biker clubs "normally only get noticed when something big like this happens," Sparks said.

"They aren't standing out on street corners like gangbangers," Sparks said, adding that it was "not unusual for bikers" to be reluctant to talk to outsiders.

The Hawks, who have chapters in Mississippi, Wisconsin and Tennessee, style themselves as a social club and were recently honored for their charitable work.

But a federal indictment unsealed last summer alleged Suddoth was one of seven co-conspirators in a $35 million mortgage fraud scheme involving more than 120 mostly South Side residential properties.

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