RIVER NORTH — A hotel bartender died after being punched and then hit by a car outside a River North bar Sunday morning, police said. But friends of Marques Gaines say they're baffled by reports of their incredibly calm friend ever fighting anyone.
The trouble began around 4:20 a.m. Sunday in the 400 block of North State Street, where two men were arguing on the sidewalk, police said. One of the men, later identified as Gaines, was punched in the face and knocked into the street.
The person who hit him fled, police said, and the driver of a passing sedan didn't see the unconscious Gaines lying in the street. He was hit and rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, police said.
Loop North News reported that Gaines was hit by a cab. The driver did stay on the scene and was not ticketed, police said.
Gaines grew up in near Atlanta and attended Northern Michigan University, according to Rachel Hogan, one of his friends from Georgia.
"He was effervescent," Hogan said. "I was really selfish with my time with him, and I knew everyone else was too. Every time you saw him you'd just want to stay with him forever and ever."
Hogan, like others who knew Gaines, was skeptical of the police account saying his death followed a two-sided argument.
"In the 13 years I've known him, I've never even seen him exchange words with someone," Hogan said. "If someone ever tried to start something he would get out of the way, or try to calm them down."
"The maddest I've ever seen him was at a wedding when I didn't know all the words to 'Trap Queen,'" Hogan added, laughing.
Acquaintances said Gaines, who lived in the 1400 block of West Chicago Avenue, was a bartender at the Chicago Marriott Hotel on Michigan Avenue.
Rudy Coronel worked alongside Gaines at the hotel for five years, said every time he checked his work schedule he hoped their shifts would overlap.
"There was just never a dull day with Marques — even on our bad days, he would find a way to make it fun," Coronel said. "He could get along with anybody, make anybody laugh. He was just that kind of guy, so full of life."
Coronel said when he heard an argument preceded Gaines' death, he was confused.
"I really can't believe he would do that — he just wasn't a fighter, it wasn't his way," he said.
Gerry, a security worker at Mother Hubbard's Sports Pub, 5 W. Hubbard St., who declined to give his last name, said "all kinds of stories" were being spread about what happened Sunday morning. But while neither Gerry nor Coronel witnessed the incident, both said they'd heard it was a robbery, not an argument.
"It doesn't surprise me, either," Gerry said. "There's been so many robberies on this strip late at night, and the police haven't been doing anything about it."
Gaines was a regular at Mother Hubbard's, Gerry said, and most of the staff there knew him by name.
"It's been a really tough week here for us, and people are still pretty touchy about it," Gerry said. "Everyone is really in mourning right now."
Police said they're conducting a death investigation, and no arrests have been made. The morgue listed his cause of death as "pending" earlier this week.
A funeral service has been tentatively set for next Saturday in Georgia, Hogan said.
She said friends were planning a huge dance party after the service, "the way Marques would have." Coronel called Gaines a "dancing machine," and Hogan said he "owned the jukebox at whatever bar he was in."
"Based on all the people who have been showing support on Facebook, we might have to rent out the Georgia Dome for it," Hogan said.
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