Garfield Ridge community calls for bar's closure after deadly shootout involving security guard

27-year-old man killed, Halina's Pub security guard among 2 injured outside while city inspectors were in business, alderman says

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Sunday, November 17, 2024 4:44AM
Community calls for SW Side bar's closure after deadly shootout
The Garfield Ridge, Chicago community is calling for Halina's Pub to close after a man was killed and its security guard was injured in a shootout.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Southwest Side community is calling for the permanent closure of a bar after a shooting Friday night left its security guard injured and a man dead.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

While Halina's Pub is shuttered for now, there's a neighborhood effort underway to keep it closed following a deadly shootout that happened on the bar's grand reopening.

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"This was the first night they were opening, and for this to happen... we're not going to put up with it," Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch President Al Cacciottola.

While the "open" sign is cut off, keeping the lights out at Halina's Pub on Archer Avenue in Garfield Ridge has become an ongoing effort with neighbors.

"We're not going to tolerate this in our neighborhood," 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn said.

We're going to change the zoning... It will no longer be a liquor establishment, and the community is going to have a front row seat as to what happens next.
Marty Quinn, 13th Ward Ald.

Police said an argument between two men and a concealed-carry license holder led to a deadly shootout Friday night.

"People walk up and down this street," Cacciottola said. "It could've been worse, and that's why as a community, we stick together."

All three men were shot. Chicago police said when they arrived on scene, a 27-year-old man was dead.

"Two offenders walked up on and parked behind a security guard... in short order, opened up fire," Ald. Quinn said. "It turns out while the shooting was taking place out front, the City of Chicago enforcement agents were inside writing up citations."

Ald. Quinn told ABC7 the CCL holder is the security guard at the business. It's a business, he says, should have never been open in the first place after a recent change in ownership.

"My next step, in collaboration with the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch, is to shut down this building completely," Quinn said.

Those efforts will begin Tuesday night near 52nd and South Austin, during the Neighborhood Watch's monthly meeting.

"There's going to be people mad," Cacciottola said. "The last thing we want to see is people say, 'Our neighborhood is going. It's time to pack up and leave.'"

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"We're going to change the zoning," Quinn said. "It will no longer be a liquor establishment, and the community is going to have a front row seat as to what happens next."

ABC7 has reached out to the bar's owner but has not heard back.

As far as the shooting investigation goes, police said at this time no one has been arrested. The security guard was last listed in critical condition. The other man who survived the shooting was taken to the hospital in fair condition.

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