CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicago police shut down River North nightclub Blüm on Monday following a shooting in which eight people were hospitalized.
Police said the shooting stemmed from a fight that began outside of the club, located at Erie and Orleans Streets.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) informed residents that he asked CPD to order a summary closure of the nightclub. Reilly said he wanted to make sure Blüm couldn't reopen prior to its planned sale next month.
The alderman called Blüm a "problem nightclub" and said it’s inexplicable that the City has allowed the club to maintain operations despite it being the source of chronic complaints and links to earlier shootings.
Blüm is owned by So Clutch Group, which operates a number of restaurants, bars and nightclubs in Texas.
One River North resident said he and his fiancé woke up to 30 gunshots Sunday morning.
"This is probably the second or third time that we have heard gunshots, so unfortunately we weren't too panicked because we knew what was happening, and we are in a safe, guarded building," said Brendan Hill.
Hill said he wasn't surprised that the shooting happened outside the restaurant. He added that it's common for large crowds to gather there late at night or early in the morning.
Since Chicago's summary closure ordinance was enacted in 2015, which granted the police department the power to immediately close businesses associated with violence, the majority of the establishments shuttered have been in low-income neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, according to a 2022 Chicago Sun-Times investigation — despite the surge of violence in downtown over recent years.
In 2021, when the location operated as Clutch Bar, a bouncer was shot after refusing to let a person into the bar. There was no summary closure order issued after that incident.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
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