UPTOWN — Police announced charges Monday in connection to Sunday's melee at Montrose Beach, but authorities are still seeking the organizers of what they called an unauthorized party and concert that resulted in officers getting hurt while trying to shut it down.
The Tamborazo Beach Party brought about a dozen Mexican music bands and scores of partiers and picnickers to Uptown's lakefront. It ended in a riot, with brawls between attendees and mobs who launched rocks, cans and glass bottles at police trying to restore order.
Now the office of Ald. James Cappleman (46th) wants the event's organizers slapped with fines for throwing such a huge party that officials said didn't have city permission.
"The event was not permitted, we knew nothing about it, the Park District knew nothing about it, the police knew nothing about it," said Tressa Feher, Cappleman's chief of staff. "We want to make sure the organizer is fined significantly, because this was an illegal gathering."
She said Cappleman is waiting to hear from police about the results of an investigation into what happened Sunday before announcing plans to make sure it wouldn't happen again on the lakefront.
But Feher, police and the Chicago Park District officials couldn't confirm Monday who ran the event.
An online flier for the event lists three promoters: La Empressa, KPM ENT and Noches De Parranda. Individuals connected to the entities did not return requests for comment.
"Club/event promoters need to be licensed," complained Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) in a Facebook post Monday. "There are too many fly-by-night promoters who put the public at risk."
Cappleman, who was not available for comment Monday, complained to the Tribune that ample parking spaces and lots near Montrose Beach encourage too many people to flock to that part of the beach.
But Uptown resident Gene Tenner, who facilitates community policing meetings for the police beat that includes the beach, said the issue of safety along the lakefront has "not come up much in my meetings."
"You got a lot of people picnicking and barbecuing, and lots of kids and smiling faces and it's just a joy," he said of Montrose Beach.
Yet, he said, when you "get too many people in a nice place, things can still go wrong."
"If a couple hundred people are going to be somewhere and you don't know about it, you don't have the resources to keep it calm and keep control," Tenner said, describing how the event likely caught authorities off guard.
Tweets mentioning Montrose Beach from cyclists, runners and dog owners in the hours before the ruckus commented on how beautiful it was there. But Tweets soon followed about how crowded the beach was, and eventually there were reports of a melee and police lockdown.
Several videos captured by attendees surfaced online after the chaos, which left broken glass and other debris strewn about the lakefront.
One video starts with two men slugging each other and rolling on the ground before the videographer says "There's a fight over here ... and there's a fight over here," and then runs to witness a standoff between two groups of men trading taunts and blows.
A video captured once police arrived shows officers being pelted with cans and bottles. The person who captured the video flees with friends, but laughs and screams "Chiraq!" and "Worldstar," a reference to a website featuring fights and other viral videos.
Police charged five people after the incident, including two Aurora men — 23-year-old Efrain Saucedo and 19-year-old Emmanuel Lopez — accused of throwing bottles that struck officers. With the exception of a Chicago teen, all the suspects hailed from the suburbs.
A police source labeled the offenders "knuckleheads from the suburbs" and described what happened Sunday as "a rare occurrence." The source added that often when "there's a big commotion there on the lakefront, it's not even the residents who cause it," but rowdy outsiders.
Sunday's violence followed a late June shooting at Montrose Beach that injured two women as crowds congregated after the Pride Parade. Officials called that an isolated incident, the same characterization of what took place Sunday.
Town Hall Police District Cmdr. Elias Voulgaris, asked Monday about how police strategy might shift in light of recent violence on the lakefront during large gatherings, said police were working on a plan.
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