6 shot inside private bar on South Side, none fatally

Police are investigating a private club’s possible ties to organized crime after six people were shot there early Sunday. They are all expected to survive.

Gunfire erupted at 3:43 a.m. inside the private lounge, located in the 2900 block of East 79th Street in the South Shore neighborhood, according to spokespeople for the Chicago Police Department.

“This appears to be some type of fight that escalated,” CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Sun-Times.

Witnesses told investigators they were dancing at the club when shots rang out and people fell to the floor, police said. A 24-year-old woman told detectives she heard gunshots before feeling a bullet rip through her leg.

She and a 26-year-old man, who was shot in the buttocks and grazed in the chest, were taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, police said. Later that morning, four other people showed up to hospitals with gunshot wounds from the shooting.

Three men — two 25-year-olds and a 31-year-old — arrived at Jackson Park Hospital, police said. A woman, 29, took herself to Provident Hospital after being shot in the knee.

All six people suffered wounds that were not life-threatening, police said.

On Sunday morning, Guglielmi announced that Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson ordered a wide-ranging investigation into the club, its owners and the people who were there when the shooting happened.

Guglielmi said that witnesses of the shooting were being uncooperative with investigators.

One team of investigators is looking into whether the club’s license holders or attendees have any ties to gangs or organized crime, while another is investigating whether the building is up to code and the club’s licenses are in tact, Guglielmi said. Area South detectives are investigating the shooting.

“Organized crime units & the CPD troubled buildings section will support the effort that will be led by the Commander of CPDs vice unit,” Guglielmi tweeted.

On Sunday afternoon, no one answered the bar’s front door, which is labeled “PRIVATE CLUB” and guarded by a padlocked iron gate.