CHICAGO — Three people were shot overnight outside Lyon’s Den, a hookah lounge on the border of Wicker Park and West Town where a shootout left one dead and another injured last year. Authorities have not publicly linked the latest shooting to the business.
Here’s what we know so far:
Around 1:27 a.m. on Friday, three victims were standing on the sidewalk with a group of people in the 2100 block of West Division when a gunman opened fire on the group from a black sedan, according to Chicago police. The gunman sped from the scene after the shooting.
A witness told CWBChicago that they saw a second gunman shoot from a nearby corner. That gunman escaped as the passenger in a white vehicle. Based on what they saw, the witness believed it was an “ambush-style shooting.”
All of the victims were reported in good condition, according to CPD: a 23-year-old man who was shot in the shoulder, a 45-year-old man shot in the left elbow, and a 31-year-old man with gunshot wounds to both feet.
Investigators placed more than 20 evidence markers next to shell casings in the area, some directly outside Lyon’s Den at 2123 West Division, more across the street from the club, and others a couple of doors down. An officer said a bullet went through a window at the Lyon’s Den address and a car parked in front of the business had been shot up.
Early on January 1, 2023, a shootout near the Lyon’s Den entrance left one of the club’s security officers dead and another person injured.
Shortly after the shooting, police said a man tried to enter Lyon’s Den while brandishing a handgun around 1:30 a.m. and then exchanged gunfire with the victims. Austin McAllister, a 38-year-old father of six working as a bouncer at the Lyon’s Den, died. The other victim, a 26-year-old man, suffered a gunshot wound to his left calf and survived. Family members said McAllister was the father of six and a military veteran.
“He got hurt in Iraq to come home to Chicago and be killed because he turned a patron away from the hookah lounge? He wasn’t out there partying. He wasn’t drinking. He was out there working for his kids and for himself,” McAllister’s sister told ABC7 after the shooting.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) called for the city to shutter Lyon’s Den after the shooting, but then-CPD Supt. David Brown declined to take action. The club agreed in March 2023 to beef up security and limit BYOB alcohol consumption.
Nearly two months after the shooting, CPD announced that they were looking for a 31-year-old parolee named Jimmy Chamberlain in connection with the shooting. He had been on parole for exactly three years after serving half of a 21-year sentence for armed home invasion.
Authorities caught up with Chamberlain last summer. He is currently jailed while awaiting trial on 12 felony charges, including eight counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder.
Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.
