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After Shootings, City Has Bucktown Club on Too Long of Leash: Waguespack

By Alisa Hauser | September 16, 2014 11:35am
 Los Recuerdos at 2315 W. Fullerton Ave. in Bucktown.
Los Recuerdos Night Club and Sports Bar
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BUCKTOWN — An alderman wants a Bucktown night club shut down after a man standing outside the club fired shots into a car parked outside the venue, which has just reopened after a shooting last fall.

The latest shooting in front of the Los Recuerdos Nightclub and Sports Bar, 2315 W. Fullerton Ave., occurred around 1:15 a.m. on Sept. 6. Police sources said the car contained suspected gang members.

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) said the club's security guard was standing next to the shooter and did not try to intervene.

Alisa Hauser spoke to the bar's manager about the recent problems at the club:

Los Recuerdos had only recently reopened after a 10-month shutdown that occurred after increased city scrutiny after an October 2013, incident in which rapper Slamma was shot six times in front of the club.

"Their first big event that they had back [since reopening] was, 'Let's have a shooting?' It didn't seem like they had any intention to follow the plan of operation that the city crafted," said Waguespack.

The club is open only on Friday and Saturday nights. The Sept. 6 incident happened on the third night that the club had been reopened, confirmed co-owner Jonathan Arango.

Arango said the shootings were "not connected to the club" and that he was "being proactive" in trying to be a good neighbor.

"The violent acts that occurred could happen anywhere in Chicago but just happened to have happened in front of our venue," he said. "We are hosting these parties but have no intention for someone to get shot at. There is no connection to the venue and these problems. All of this stuff happened outside the venue."

In November, after the Slamma shooting, the city found building code violations at the 119-person capacity club. The club was closed for 10 months and the violations have been addressed, Arango said.

After the Oct. 19 shooting, Waguespack put Los Recuerdos into the city's deleterious impact/public nuisance process, which requires club owners to draft a plan of operation and work with the city to correct problems.

Los Recuerdos is scheduled for its third public nuisance hearing with the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection at 11 a.m. Thursday at City Hall, Waguespack and Arango confirmed.

Waguespack said he would like to see the city's liquor commissioner confer with his office about enacting "more stringent liquor controls when a business is undergoing the public nuisance process."

"The city's law department and the liquor commissioner don't always put all the restrictions on a business that the community would want to see. Instead they are giving [Los Recuerdos] a longer leash to operate. We don't have strict enough laws that say two strikes and you are out," Waguespack said.

Steven Anderson, who lives behind the club and shares an alley with Los Recuerdos, said he was one of about 15 neighbors who attended the club's second public nuisance hearing, held in the spring. 

Neighbor complaints that occur on nights when Los Recuerdos is open include people urinating in the alley, drug dealing and prostitution, Anderson said.

Of Los Recuerdos, Anderson said: "I don't have a problem with them running a business and making money but just as long as nobody gets hurt."

In a surveillance video obtained by police from the Sept. 6 incident, a security guard from the club is standing next to the alleged shooter, Victor Torres, who police say fired five shots at people inside a parked car as well another parked car in front of the venue. 

Police sources said suspected gang members were sitting in the car. There were no reported injuries from the shooting; the bullets hit the passenger door of the car, police said.

An empty car directly in front of the venue had its back window shot out, police said.

Torres was discovered in an alley crouched behind an air conditioner, shortly after Shakespeare District police responded to calls about shots fired and gang disturbances, police said.

Officers were able to recover a handgun in the immediate area of the air conditioner and, based on surveillance video obtained from the club, identified Torres as the man who fired the handgun at both cars, authorities said.

Torres, 27, of the 2600 block of North Austin Avenue, was charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon in the Sept. 6 shooting incident, according to Office Thomas Sweeney, a police spokesman.

Police sources said the club's security guard was issued a citation for "failing to report illegal activity." Arango was not immediately available to comment on the security guard.

Police sources said that within the last year there have been 50 calls for service within a half block of the club, though the club was closed for much of that time. The year prior, there were 75 calls for service within a half block of the address and most of the calls were for gang disturbances or shots fired during the nights Los Recuerdos was open, police said.

Waguespack praised neighbors for calling in their complaints.

"Neighbors have been vigilant in reporting and I would rather see this place shut down because it's a drain on resources for police," he said, adding that Shakespeare District Cmdr. Frank Valadez "has to pull resources when this club can't get its act together."

Arango, 27,  whose father Orlando Arango opened the club 30 years ago, said he wanted to work with the community.

"The Arango family, we want to be proactive on having Los Recuerdos be part of the community, not against the community.  We want to remain open and be on a positive note. We are not trying to be combative and want to be proactive," Jonathan Arango said.

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