Stray bullets from a robbery during a drug deal wounded two people in the Loop over the weekend, including a stage hand who worked in the Theater District.
Hours after the shooting in an alley in the 100 block of North Wabash Street, a Sunday evening performance of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” was canceled at the Nederlander Theatre about two blocks away.
Both victims were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in fair condition, police said. Neither saw the shooter, who later ditched his jacket near the State/Lake Red Line stop, according to a police report.
The shooting apparently stemmed from a drug deal between two groups of people at a nearby Taco Bell, police said. An argument broke out and someone “implied a weapon” and robbed the others.
Both groups then ran south before the shooter opened fire, according to police, who said he may have been part of the group that was robbed.
Officers responded to a call of shots around 5 p.m. and found a shooting scene that extended into the alley in the first block of Benton Place, according to police reports.
Two stagehands who said they worked at the Nederlander told police they were walking east on Benton as two people were being chased the other way through the alley.One of the stagehands reported seeing someone fire at the two several times while running after them.
The other stagehand, a 55-year-old man from Elmhurst, was struck in the right ear, according to the reports. He told officers he was had just left the Chicago Theatre when he saw “a group of kids running” and he was shot.
A bartender from the Chicago Theatre told officers that he saw three males running through the alley when he heard a pair of “pops” and hid between trash cans, according to the reports. He then saw someone fire a handgun twice.
The second gunshot victim, a 27-year-old man from Gold Coast, was found with a wound to the hand, the reports state. He told officers he was walking with his girlfriend when he was struck.
No arrests were reported. Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan told reporters during a news conference that police were reviewing video on where “both groups went.”
The Sunday evening performance of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” at the Nederlander Theatre at 24 W. Randolph — about two blocks from the shooting — was canceled though the shooting wasn’t specifically given as the reason.
An official statement released to the media stated: “Due to an earlier disturbance in the Loop on Sunday afternoon, May 1, the evening performance of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” was cancelled. No other Broadway In Chicago productions were affected.”
Police said they deployed additional resources to the Theater District Sunday evening. “We will continue to monitor the area and work closely with the Cook County sheriff’s police to enhance safety in our Theater District,” the department said in a statement.
