No bond for man charged with Gold Coast shooting

Bond was denied Monday for a man charged with a Gold Coast neighborhood shooting early Saturday that left three men wounded, including an off-duty Cook County sheriff’s officer working security at a Near North Side bar.

Clifton Banks, 36, faces two felony counts of attempted first-degree murder in connection with the 3:30 a.m. shooting on State Street just north of Division, according to Chicago Police. The incident stemmed from a dispute over payment, a police source told the Chicago Sun-Times.

A 39-year-old man grazed in the head was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, along with a 33-year-old man shot in the leg, and a 30-year-old man shot in the back was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Fire officials said they all were in serious condition, but police said they had stabilized by mid-morning.

One of the victims is a courts deputy who was off duty, Cook County sheriff’s office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari said in an email.

Two men in handcuffs were escorted into separate CPD squad cars at the scene. A second person who was questioned in the shooting was released without charges.

Banks, of the 8700 block of South Emerald, was jailed without bond at a Monday hearing, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. His next court date is Feb. 3.

After the shooting, a few dozen glassy-eyed revelers gawked from the sidewalk at the sea of emergency lights that came at the tail end of a night on the busy strip of bars and clubs.

A cabdriver who declined to give his name said he was driving north on State and making a left turn onto Division, when he heard four gunshots and saw a police officer get out of an SUV at the intersection, heading toward the commotion with his gun drawn.

“After that, blue lights everywhere,” the cabdriver said of the police response.

He said it was the second shooting he had happened upon while driving early Saturday, after witnessing a fatal attack at a Goose Island gas station a mile away less than two hours earlier.

“You can’t get away from these shootings,” he said.