Bloomingdale hotel shooting at Indian Lakes resort shooting leaves rapper dead, James McGill aka BCR Meezle. 4-6 injured- no arrests. No security was present.
At least one gunman remains at large after shooting dead one person and injuring six others at a hotel in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
Officers responded to a call of shots fired on the fifth floor of the Indian Lakes Hotel on W Schick Road at 2.35am on Saturday morning in the Chicago area suburb, Fox 32 Chicago reported.
Police arrived to find several people fleeing the scene as well as ‘multiple apparent gunshot victims’ inside.
Police said up to 100 people were partying on two separate floors with no security on staff, before the shooting unfolded the Chicago Tribune reported.
Arriving officers saw several people fleeing the hotel and found multiple gunshot victims on the fifth and sixth floors.
27 year old rapper identified as fatal victim
Police believe one or multiple suspects may have fled the scene. No known suspects or arrests had been made come Saturday night.
The victims were rushed to area hospitals, where one later died, Bloomingdale Police said.
A SWAT team was also on the scene and secured the rooms.
Bloomingdale Public Safety Director Frank Giammarese said the person who was killed was a man in his 20s. ABC 7 identified the victim as 27 year old man, James McGill Jr who had lived in the Englewood neighborhood.
Verbal argument between two large groups of people
HipHopDx identified McGill as Chicago area rapper, BCR Meezle, an aspiring rapper whose most recent singles include 2020’s “Get Wild” featuring MackBaybii and “Straight Facts” with YL$ Flame, Moneyyy and JHE AL. According to his last Instagram post, shared less than 24 hours ago, the 27-year-old had just released another single called ‘DIE Y.’
Giammarese said the shooting appeared to stem from a verbal argument between two large groups of people staying on the hotel’s upper floors, and at least two people may have opened fire. In all, the crowd totaled about 100 to 150 people, he said.
‘There was a verbal argument that led to a physical fight between parties,’ Giammarese said. ‘There was an altercation in the hallway, someone starts shooting, someone shoots back … it’s an unfortunate situation.’
No security present at resort hotel
In a statement on Facebook, Bloomingdale Mayor Franco Coladipietro said he and the Village Board had shared their concerns over a lack of consistent security at the hotel for the last several years.
‘The unfortunate incident that occurred this morning may have been avoided if security was present as First Hospitality Group had promised in our meetings. Our investigation has confirmed that no security was on duty at the time,’ Coladipietro posted.
He went on to say he has directed staff to begin revoking all licenses for the hotel to operate in Bloomingdale.
‘We are now in the process of initiating legal proceedings to eliminate this threat to our community,’ he said.
Police were still attempting to determine an exact motive for the shooting, but the investigation has been hampered because many witnesses have refused to speak to police, Giammarese said.
‘There was not a lot of cooperation,’ he said. ‘People said, ‘We don’t like the police, we’re not going to cooperate with the police.’ It’s unfortunate that people take the approach that they do.’
Drastic spike in crime
Giammarese said there have been ‘ongoing concerns’ about large gatherings at the hotel in recent years that have been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. At the time of the shooting, there was no security on duty and only one employee appeared to be staffing the hotel, he said, the Chicago Tribune reported.
‘There has been a drastic spike in crime there,’ he said. ‘We’ve taken guns off of people. We’ve made arrests.’
Giammarese said he and other village officials have tried to work with the company that runs the hotel, Rosemont-based First Hospitality Group, but nothing has been done.
Located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of downtown Chicago, the five-story Indian Lakes Hotel features 300 recently renovated rooms and more than 7,000 square feet (650 square meters) of event space, according to the resort’s website.
