The family of a man who was fatally shot by police early Sunday morning outside a Markham nightclub pleaded with authorities for answers at a news conference Monday in Maywood.
Donte T. Jones, 36, a father of four including a 1-month-old baby, was shot by an officer outside the Stadium nightclub, 16300 Dixie Highway, after police, who had responded to multiple calls of fights in the club’s rear parking lot, say he threatened them with a weapon.
Markham Police Chief Mack Sanders said Sunday that a man with a weapon moved “in close proximity” to an officer, who in fear for his safety, opened fire “to stop the threat.”
Jones’ family and its attorney Cannon Lambert declined Monday to address whether Jones had been armed, saying that the more important question was how and why he was shot.
“Ms. Jones has a whole host of questions about how this happened and why this happened,” Lambert, flanked by Jones’ mother, Barbara, and his girlfriend, Lakeena Dukes, said. “She has had occasion to talk to several people that were actually there when this incident happened and through those conversations has a whole host of questions that she is seeking answers to.”
Lambert said the family’s concerns were threefold — it would like to speak with police about the circumstances of Jones’ death; review police and surveillance videos of the fatal shooting; and speak to Markham’s mayor about why the nightclub has remained open despite a litany of shootings in recent years at that location under previous ownership.
“I just want to know what happened to my son,” Barbara Jones said. “The police haven’t contacted me, I haven’t heard anything, they wouldn’t let me see his body. So I just want to know what happened. I want to see the videos, I just want some justice. I just want to know what happened to my son and why.”
While family members would not address whether Jones might have had a gun — police have said they recovered a weapon — they did cast doubt on the police narrative of events.
“From what we’ve been told from people that were there, Donte was actually trying to get away from people that were chasing him,” Lambert said. “And if he’s trying to get away from people who are chasing him and moving towards what he would perceive to be safety — that is the police — it’s confusing why he’s been shot.”
Barbara Jones said a witness who had been with her son told her that he’d been shot in the back.
Sanders said he wasn’t sure where Jones had been shot, nor how many times, and that he was not aware of the family’s claims that Jones may have been shot in the back.
The medical examiner’s office reported Monday that Jones died of “multiple gunshot wounds” but declined to release the location and number of wounds, citing the pending nature of the case and additional toxicology reports that still needed to be conducted.
Despite the family’s pleas for more information about the incident, Sanders said he did not intend to contact them, at least until the investigation had concluded. He said he would “possibly” reach out once the investigation was complete but noted the family’s retention of a lawyer had complicated things.
“When you start getting attorneys involved,” he said, “how does communication occur?”
Sanders also said the Markham Police Department has neither body cams nor dash cams, and thus there is no police footage of the fatal confrontation. He said he’d have to check on whether the nightclub’s video surveillance system had captured the incident on tape.
Dukes said her boyfriend, who was well aware of the dangers posed by confronting officers in the way police claim he did, would not have taken that risk.
“I know that he wouldn’t play Russian roulette with his life,” she said. “For them to say anything was justified; that wasn’t him, that wasn’t the type of person he was.”
Barbara Jones also called for the shutdown of the Stadium, the nightclub where the fatal incident occurred.
Until a few months ago, the club was known as Adrianna’s, a notorious night spot where a Daily Southtown investigation found at least eight people had been shot, two fatally, since it opened in 2009, according to police records.
In addition to the shootings, police reports also detail a series of other crimes, including several incidents in which departing clubgoers were ambushed by gunmen or incoming customers were stopped by security for trying to bring guns into the premises.
Despite numerous lawsuits stemming from the violence and petitions calling for the club to close, Markham officials hadn’t closed or sanctioned the club, the Southtown report found.
Instead, the city had given the property developer more than $900,000 in tax breaks, and Mayor David Webb Jr. had spent more than $127,000 in campaign funds at the banquet hall.
“Frankly, the location where this incident happened has a long, long history. A long history of violence,” Lambert said. “And (Barbara Jones) has real concerns about how it is that this situation happens in the face of other situations where people have been shot, people have been beaten brutally, and is concerned about whether or not that establishment should even exist.
“To that extent, she is looking to see the mayor of Markham and the officials of Markham evaluate whether or not that facility, that liquor license and the like, should still be present.”
Mayor Webb said the night club would remain closed while the Markham and state police investigations are ongoing, and that once those investigations conclude, the town will hold a liquor hearing to assess the status of the business’ liquor license.
The mayor said the club has been under new ownership. He said he thought the sale took place in April and that the new owners applied for a liquor license and went through the required background check before receiving one.
It’s not clear when the Stadium opened. Joseph Gomez applied for an Illinois liquor license on June 14, 2016, and his Markham liquor license is dated June 15, records released by the state show.
Gomez could not be immediately reached at his business number.
In late June, social media posters mourned what was advertised as Adrianna’s imminent closure.
“Bye Bye Adrianna’s, 7 great years,” read one image shared by a Twitter user on June 30. The image advertised “free parking,” “free for ladies,” and “first 100 drinks free” for Friday, July 1.
Police records show there was another shooting in the parking lot about 3:20 a.m. July 1.
Police arrived at the Adrianna’s parking lot in response to a report of shots fired in the gated lot, police said.
Police also heard reports that the offending vehicle, a black SUV, was leaving the scene northbound on Dixie Highway “at a high rate of speed.”
A Markham police officer fired shots at the SUV and believed the vehicle had bullet holes on the passenger side, police said.
At the scene, paramedics loaded the victim onto a stretcher. Police did not release information on the victim’s identity but did say he suffered gunshot wounds. His condition was unknown.
Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Jason Bradley said the State Police Public Integrity Task Force is investigating whether the shooting was justified.
zkoeske@tribpub.com, gpratt@tribpub.com
Twitter @ZakKoeske, @royalpratt
