Police made at least one arrest as a social media “takeover” of North Avenue Beach spilled into the nearby Old Town neighborhood on Wednesday evening.
About 300 people streamed from the beach into the area near Clark Street and North Avenue around 8:30 p.m., according to local residents. Cops spent the next three hours clearing the streets.
“We got a crowd at North and Wells,” an officer said on the local police radio at 8:37 p.m. “Real big. Jumping on cars. We need some more cars out here.”
Video recorded from a highrise shows a large group of people running from the area of Clark and LaSalle toward the Chicago History Museum. Other footage shows people dancing on cars on North Avenue and on Clark Street.
In a media statement issued just before midnight, CPD said “police responded to a crowd of youths which were dispersed from the beach and monitored as they left the area. There were no arrest or injuries reported.”
Moments before the statement was published, police arrested someone for reckless conduct on the 1700 block of North Clark around 11:45 p.m., a spokesperson confirmed this morning. Social media videos show two other people being detained, one at the beach during daylight hours, the other in the middle of North Avenue near LaSalle after dark.
Snapchat videos give a sense of what happened:
CWBChicago confirmed that police made two more arrests while saturating the area Wednesday night. Cops arrested a man for illegal gun possession on the 1500 block of North State at 9:29 p.m. Another was arrested at State and North Avenue for failure to register as a gun offender around 11 p.m.
Large crowds of people, many of whom were waiting for rideshares, overtook two gas stations. Officers also reported that some people in the crowd threw bottles.
Wednesday’s “North Ave Beach Takeover” was promoted with social media posts that promised a beer pong table “drinking contest, twerk contest, boxing gloves, cameraman in attendance.”
“Bring out da booty shorts cos we ousside,” encouraged one flyer. “Yall better get a car wash cos da bad bitches comin out”
A man who lives in the area said he felt the incident showed a lack of preparation by the city.
“We hear [police] say they are prepared to respond to [large group incidents]. I’m concerned that there is not an effort to prevent them in the first place,” he said. “I think that is a symptom of bigger problems like a lack of officers and shortcomings in leadership.”
Note: After publication of this story, CPD identified the man charged with reckless conduct as Termaine Patterson, 18.
