A man has been charged with shooting a woman near a popular Lincoln Park bar strip on June 7, an incident that rattled neighbors even before a second, unrelated shooting just yards away turned fatal in July.
Chicago police said Thursday night that Jaylin Jones, 23, faces charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery by discharging a firearm in connection with the shooting of a 39-year-old woman in the 600 block of West Belden Avenue. Police have not detailed what led them to Jones, and more information about the allegations against him is expected to come out during his detention hearing on Friday afternoon.
In June, CPD said officers responded to multiple calls of shots fired in the area just before 3 a.m., with callers reporting people running from the scene. Officers searched the neighborhood but did not immediately find a victim. About 45 minutes later, the woman arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital with gunshot wounds to her chest and thigh and was rushed into surgery.
Officers returned to the area around Lincoln and Belden avenues, where they found shell casings at the entrance of an alley just east of Lincoln Avenue. A blood trail led toward the nearby bar district, officers at the scene said.
Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd) emailed constituents later that morning and linked the shooting to a nearby bar, though he did not name the business. Knudsen described it as an “isolated incident” stemming from an altercation between a group of people after they left a bar on Lincoln Avenue and moved onto Belden Avenue. He said concerns about the Lincoln Avenue bar corridor were not new to his office and that he was pushing city departments to allow new rules for that stretch of businesses.
The shooting was not isolated for long. Less than two months later, on July 21, 30-year-old Malik McCorkle was shot and killed in the 2200 block of North Lincoln Avenue, just yards from where the June shooting occurred.
Surveillance video obtained by WGN-TV shows three men with firearms on the sidewalk, including one man, apparently McCorkle, wearing a white shirt. The footage shows two of the armed men standing side by side, facing McCorkle from several feet away in what looked like a standoff. One of the two men appears to fire a shot, followed by the second man.
Officers found McCorkle on the sidewalk outside a bank. He had been shot in the head and elsewhere on his body. Police also recovered a gun at the scene that may have belonged to McCorkle. Both shooters fled before officers arrived. One of them, a concealed carry holder, returned about 45 minutes later and surrendered to police. Prosecutors ultimately decided not to charge that man.
Within hours of the killing, Chicago police interim Supt. Fred Waller issued a summary closure order for The Dime, 2263 North Lincoln Avenue, after officials connected that day’s shooting to the business.
“This is not the same as permanently revoking the Dime’s liquor license,” Knudsen said at the time. “That is a separate, longer process through BACP and the Local Liquor Control Commissioner.”
A summary closure allows the police superintendent to shut a business down immediately, without a hearing, once CPD determines it poses a public safety threat, meaning officials have tied a violent crime directly to the establishment. The closure can last up to six months. Knudsen’s office said The Dime could reopen sooner if it negotiates an abatement plan with the city covering security staffing, cameras and earlier closing hours, and shows the danger has been addressed. Without such a plan, the bar will not be allowed to reopen, his office said.
“This action reflects how serious and well documented the pattern of a risk of violence has become at this location,” Knudsen said “This homicide should have never occurred, and I send my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the victim.”
