A man is in serious condition after being stabbed outside a Loop hotel overnight. It’s the latest in a 10-day wave of violent crimes along Wacker Drive that sources have said is connected to large parties at nearby hotels.
Police said two groups of men got into an argument that turned violent outside the Swissotel, 323 East Wacker, around 2:49 a.m. During the brawl, an offender stabbed the 19-year-old victim in the abdomen, according to police.
An ambulance transported the injured man to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Witnesses reported seeing a group of five people walk into the Swissotel after the stabbing. Other participants in the fight went into a nearby parking garage. No arrests have been made.
Police responded to at least two calls of arguments and disturbances near the hotel between 2 a.m. and the time of the stabbing, according to dispatch records.
CPD sources have said hotel rates in the downtown area, driven to rock-bottom prices during the COVID-19 pandemic, are sparking large hotel parties. Hotel rooms at leading downtown hotels are being sold for as little as $79 for accommodations that drew rates of over $300 a night last summer, according to hospitality workers who spoke with CWBChicago.
The downtown violence spree began on July 19 when a man was killed and a woman injured in a double shooting on the Wabash Bridge. Police released a video of the incident that clearly shows a significant CPD presence was deployed to Wacker Drive at the time of the shooting.
Another man was shot just south of the Wabash Bridge on Saturday. Prosecutors charged a friend of that victim with shooting at the gunman as he ran from the scene.
On Sunday, July 26, another man was shot as he sat in a car near Wacker and Columbus drives, less than a block from the Swissotel. Shortly after the shooting, police arrested a man who was allegedly carrying a gun with an extended magazine near the LondonHouse hotel, about three blocks away.
In addition to the violence along the river, another man was critically wounded in a shooting near the W Chicago Lakeshore hotel in Streeterville on Sunday.