WRIGLEYVILLE — Neighbors are calling for the end of a well-known Christmas bar crawl and demanding answers after a shooting early Sunday.
The head of the Southport Neighbors Association and other residents slammed Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) for not commenting on the situation until late Monday morning, 32 hours after the incident.
At least 78 shots were fired around 3:05 a.m. Sunday near Racine and Patterson, prosecutors said Monday. Ralph Banks, 19, was charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm and is held on $1 million bail. One man was wounded and treated at St. Francis Hospital for a gunshot wound in his upper back, which he said he received near the intersection, Tunney said in an email.
Police conducting a traffic stop near the McDonald's across from Wrigley Field heard gunfire and ran toward the shooting and arrested Banks, officials said. At least two other men reportedly fired shots, and officers each fired one shot.
"I have been in constant contact with Commander [Robert] Cesario and the 19th Police District as they are gathering more information on the shooting," Tunney said. The alderman confirmed that the shooting sprang from a party and said officials are contacting the building's owner to discuss the "isolated incident."
The shooting happened seven hours after the Twelve Bars of Christmas bar crawl. Ahead of the event, organizers pledged heightened security until 2:30 a.m. to prevent repeats of past years' violence.
On Tuesday, police confirmed the shooting was unrelated to the crawl. A party involving gang members, mainly from Evanston, drew multiple factions in a gang-related conflict to Wrigleyville, police said.
"We do not have any reason to believe the overnight event was connected in any way," spokeswoman Lissa Druss Christman said in an email Sunday afternoon.
Despite the assurance, neighbors laid blame on the 12-hour TBOX crawl for exhausting officers during the day and asked Tunney to put a stop to the event that drew more than 16,000 participants to the neighborhood Saturday.
"These binge-drinking events are out of control. People are way overserved and vulnerable, and our neighbors are left to deal with the crime it attracts afterward," said Jill Peters, president of the Southport Neighbors Association.
Peters is calling for "a moratorium on these mass binge-drinking activities" in Lakeview and expects Southport Neighbors will discuss the issue at its next meeting, she said.
Festa Parties, which organizes the crawl, made changes over the past two years to keep the event "surprisingly quiet." This year, 150 security guards patrolled the area, and registration was capped at 20,000 people.
During TBOX 2012, a stabbing with a shattered beer bottle prompted changes to the crawl. Although bar crawls do not legally require city approval, Festa Parties applied for a special event permit at Tunney's request in 2013.
Festa also donates $25,000 each to Lakeview Pantry and the Chicago Police Memorial Fund, and Chicago Gateway Green received $1,000.
For the first time this year, TBOX offered $300 to each of four neighborhood groups along the route — Southport Neighbors, East Lake View Neighbors, Triangle Neighbors and Hawthorne Neighbors.
Southport Neighbors turned down the donation, Peters said.
The donations equal about 7 percent of the at least $700,000 in ticket sales generated Saturday.
But the donations are "simply not enough to justify the aftermath and damage [TBOX causes] to our security and our quality of life," Peters said.
Matthew Gallagher, who lives on Patterson Avenue, said there was "no doubt" the shooting was related to TBOX and said it should "never be issued a permit again."
Gallagher praised police officers' response to the shooting, but said several told him they were "exhausted" from working during the bar crawl.
"At some point, someone is going to get raped or killed, and a $50K donation ... won't help that in any way," resident Daniel Grand said in an email to Tunney.
Tunney's office agreed to arrange a meeting between Gallagher, other concerned neighbors and police, but a date has not been set.
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