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225 Calls To Cops In Year Leading Up To Shooting at Bucktown Club

By Alisa Hauser | December 9, 2016 4:30pm | Updated on December 12, 2016 9:45am
 Rio Chicago, 2200 N. Ashland Ave.
Rio Chicago, 2200 N. Ashland Ave.
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DNAinfo/Paul Biasco

BUCKTOWN — The former Green Dolphin club saw 225 calls to police resulting in 25 reports of violence in or around its premises in the year leading up to its city-ordered closure on Oct. 26, records show.

On Oct. 23, the most recent incident, a security worker was shot by a patron fleeing the club. Security workers at the Bucktown nightclub were found to be armed with loaded guns and had "pointed in the direction of patrons," according to the documents obtained by DNAinfo.

Last month, a representative for the club, at 2200 N. Ashland Ave., appeared before Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama to contest the six-month closing of the venue, which the city handed down following the shooting of the 29-year-old bouncer.

The case was continued to January 10, and Valderrama denied the club's request to stay open. The order closing it down is set to last until April 26, 2017.

The former Green Dolphin nightclub changed its name to Rio Chicago after two murders in 2015, but the change did not stem the violence surrounding the club, according to the 105 pages of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request.

The documents, referenced in the city's "summary closure" report, covered from Oct. 23, 2015 to Oct. 23, 2016.

The 25 incidents classified as violent included one person being shot, three shots fired, six people armed with handguns, 36 episodes of battery/fights and eight disturbances, according to the report.

In one case, two women suffered facial abrasions and were taken to an area hospital after a fight in the club's bathroom.

In the Oct. 23 incident in which 29-year-old security worker Charles Thomas was shot, the report says video footage shows the shooter inside the club around 5 a.m. The suspect, who was a regular at the club, draws a black handgun and points it at a security guard.

At least two other security guards pull out weapons and point at the suspect with other customers present. For about three and a half minutes, the offender waves his gun, pointing it at security and other people in the club. Four security guards can be seen with guns pointed, as well. At one point, security guard Thomas "can be seen loading a magazine in his gun and chambering a round while the gun is pointed in the direction of the patrons," according to the report.

The suspect can later be seen on a camera outside the club firing at the club and then speeding away. Thomas suffered a gunshot wound to his leg, police said.

The report concludes that security at the club "show a blatant disregard for the safety of their patrons, employees and the general public by failing to exercise any semblance of firearms safety in the performance of their duties."

Prior to this past year of violence, Deonta Jackson, 35, and Elijah Moore, 41, were killed when a March, 2015 fight inside the former Green Dolphin club spilled into the street.

After that slaying, Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) slammed Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office for not shutting the club down sooner. Since 2006, the alderman said at the time, the club had been fined or cited more than a dozen times for violations and fights had become commonplace. 

Waguespack said the temporary shut down is not enough. 

"I'm glad to see it closed for six months, but I would rather see them closed permanently because they have proven to the city and neighborhood that they don't know how to run a business that is free of violence and sapping police and city resources," Waguespack said. "I hope that the City Law Department and [Dept. of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection] are aggressive in their work to obtain full closure."

Rio Chicago owner Sam Menetti did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The ordinance used to shut the club down for being a threat to public safety allows a reopening when the business owner "takes reasonable steps to protect its employees, patrons and members of the public from future harm," the city says.

See all police reports and calls for service incidents in two documents, embedded below.

ANOTHER 63 PAGES OF INCIDENTS CAN BE VIEWED HERE.