3 shot during after-hours party at Old Irving Park office space

Three people were shot Sunday at an after-hours gathering at an Old Irving Park office on the Northwest Side.

About 1:10 a.m., the victims were inside R&R Events Venue LLC, 4272 W. Irving Park Road, when a gunman entered and opened fire, Chicago police said.

A 29-year-old man was struck in the chest, while another man and a woman, both 30, were each shot in the leg, police said. They all were taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in fair condition.

No one was in custody, police said.

The woman who was shot reported hearing arguing near the venue’s front entrance before the gunfire erupted, according to an internal police report. On Sunday morning, dried blood could still be seen near the doorway. By late afternoon, a city inspector taped an orange notice to the building’s glass door that announced the business will be shut down until further notice.

Rhonda Hubbard, who is listed as one of the company’s managers in state records, said she wasn’t present for the shooting. “I don’t know what happened,” Hubbard said during a brief phone interview.

A police source said the space had been rented for the night by a woman throwing a party for her deceased boyfriend. When officers arrived, the source said many of the attendees fled the scene.

A spokesperson for the city’s Office of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection said R&R Events Venue doesn’t have an active business license, adding that the agency “is working closely with city partners during the investigation.”

Liz Fisher, an agent for Wald Management, which manages the building that houses the space, noted that R&R Events Venue signed a lease to use it as an office in December, a month after state records show the company was incorporated.

Fisher said her firm had previously moved to evict R&R Events Venue for violating the terms of its lease agreement by hosting events. After receiving a noise complaint a week ago, Fisher said her company served R&R Events Venue with a cease-and-desist notice.

The shooting comes two months after three people were wounded in a shooting outside of an illegal nightclub in Jefferson Park. Meagan Bilbo, 19, was struck in the chest and killed.

Amid growing concerns from residents after that shooting, Ald. James Gardiner attended a community meeting in December with local police leaders who vowed to crack down on illegal guns and parties, Block Club Chicago reported.

Gardiner, whose ward also includes the building where Sunday’s shooting occurred, didn’t immediately respond to an interview request.