Chicago Police Supt. David Brown ordered the immediate, temporary closure on Tuesday of a Wicker Park bar where a man was shot over the weekend just four months after a mass shooting injured four and killed one outside the venue’s front door.
A bright orange sticker announcing the closure was plastered on the door of The Point, 1565 North Milwaukee, Tuesday afternoon. CPD Sgt. Rocco Alioto confirmed Brown issued the order.
Aldermen created Chicago’s Summary Closure Ordinance to keep businesses deemed a “public safety threat” closed until the business owner takes “reasonable steps” to protect its employees, patrons, and members of the public from future harm, according to the city. Business owners have rights to a probable cause hearing and a hearing to resume operations under the ordinance.
CPD leaders similarly shuttered SoundBar in River North following a shooting that killed one of its bouncers and injured a co-owner in 2019. More recently, Brown ordered Dinner and a Movie, 2500 North Ashland, to close after shots were fired outside its doors last year. Both businesses subsequently re-opened.
Shortly after The Point’s closing time at 5 a.m. Sunday, someone fired shots into the bar from across the street, shattering its front glass, according to a CPD report. Police said a 29-year-old man inside the bar was shot in the eye. A woman inside the bar was injured by flying glass.
In October, a gunfight involving four shooters left one of the offenders dead and four bystanders mingling outside The Point injured.
The bar’s owner, Jun Lin, blamed Chicago police for October’s shooting, saying they did not respond quickly to 911 calls requesting that the crowd outside his business be dispersed.
On Monday, Block Club Chicago reported that Sunday’s shooter was a customer of The Point who returned and fired shots after leaving.
Lin told the outlet he had “no idea” what caused the latest shooting
“That’s violence in Chicago. I don’t think the answer is to my close business when we haven’t done anything wrong.”