A brawl that erupted outside a nightclub ended with police fatally shooting a man who had threatened police in south suburban Markham early Sunday, police said, adding that another person had been arrested.
The slain man was identified as Donte T. Jones, 36, of the 300 block of South Fifth Avenue in Maywood, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Initially, four or five Markham police officers responded to calls of fights taking place in the rear parking lot outside the Stadium club, 16300 Dixie Highway, between 2:15 and 2:45 a.m., police Chief Mack Sanders said.
A man holding a weapon moved “in close proximity” to the officer, who believed his safety was at risk and shot him “to stop the threat,” Sanders said.
Jones was pronounced dead at 3:29 a.m. at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, according to the medical examiner’s office. An autopsy is slated for Monday, the office said.
Officers from surrounding communities, including Harvey and Hazel Crest, also responded to calls of a large group of people fighting. Sanders did not know how many times the officer fired or what prompted the fight.
The officer who shot the man has been with the department about four years and is on modified duty pending the investigation, Sanders said.
A weapon was recovered and charges are pending for one person who was arrested, Sanders said.
Until a few months ago, Stadium was known as Adrianna’s — an establishment with a long history of violence over the years. Sanders said ownership had changed.
The club has its own security personnel and a security platform outside at the northwest corner overlooking the parking lot, but Sanders did not know who called authorities.
Social media posts had promoted a Sunday event to be hosted by local basketball star and Milwaukee Bucks player Jabari Parker and his NBA teammates. A spokesman for the Milwaukee Bucks couldn’t immediately be reached.
The promotion did not list the name of the venue but indicated it was to take place near the site of Sunday’s shooting.
A Daily Southtown investigation found at least eight people had been shot at Adrianna’s or its parking lot, two fatally, after that club opened in 2009, according to police records.
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Adrianna’s sits at the corner of 163rd Street and Dixie Highway, and the most recent shooting occurred in July, according to police and court records.
Police responded to reports of shots fired in the club’s gated parking lot. Police also were told that a black SUV with a suspected shooter was speeding away from the club, records show. A Markham officer fired shots at the SUV, but authorities were unable to get a make, model or license plate.
Authorities only would say at the time that a male victim suffered gunshot wounds.
In addition to the shootings, police reports also chronicle a litany of other crimes, including several incidents in which departing clubgoers were ambushed by gunmen or incoming customers were stopped by security for trying to bring guns into the premises.
Despite numerous lawsuits stemming from the violence and petitions calling for the club to close, Markham officials hadn’t closed or sanctioned the club, the Southtown report found. Instead, the city had given the property developer more than $900,000 in tax breaks and Mayor David Webb Jr. had spent more than $110,000 in campaign funds at the banquet hall.
Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Jason Bradley said two investigations into Sunday’s shooting have been opened. The State Police Public Integrity Task Force is investigating whether the shooting was justified. The Cook County South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force will handle a criminal investigation into the 36-year-old man’s shooting and circumstances leading up to the confrontation, Bradley said.
Mike Nolan is a Daily Southtown reporter and Tony Briscoe is a baiduhai reporter.