CHICAGO — One of three men shot near the Wicker Park nightlife strip on New Year’s Eve has died, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Raimon Pierce, 29, of Romeoville, died Friday morning at an acute care facility in the suburbs. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide due to complications from multiple gunshot wounds.
Pierce and two other men were walking in an alley behind the 1500 block of North Milwaukee around 2:04 a.m. on December 31 when a gunman approached them and began yelling, Chicago police said at the time.
The offender opened fire, striking Pierce in the hip and lower stomach, police said. Both of Pierce’s companions were shot and critically injured.
Chicago police officers stationed on the nearby bar strip heard the gunshots and found a handgun in the 1400 block of North Honore. But the gunman slipped away.
An officer at the scene said two Hispanic men ran from the shooting scene, one about 5’2″ tall wearing a black and white Nike sweatshirt and the other wearing a white shirt.
Within hours of the shooting, then-CPD Supt. David Brown ordered DSTRKT, 1540 North Milwaukee, to be closed immediately under the city’s summary closure ordinance.
Investigators said they found shell casings in an alley behind the bar, and police believe the shooting may have followed an argument between patrons of the establishment, according to a law enforcement source. But police did not publicly state why Brown took action against the bar, which has since reopened.
The summary closure ordinance is supposed 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.
Just up the street from DSTRKT, a bar called The Point was summarily closed by Chicago police in February 2022 after the city linked it to a mass shooting and a separate shooting within four months.