2 Dead, 5 Wounded In Shooting At Club
Updated: 1/2/11 9:18 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) - Police are talking to a "person of interest" in an early Sunday shooting at a South Side motorcycle club that left two men dead and five others wounded.
The shooting happened at a motorcycle club in the 100 block of West 75th Street in West Chatham about 1:40 a.m., police said.
As CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports, authorities have been questioning a single person of interest since right after the incident but have yet to press charges.
A love of fast bikes brought riders together at The Hawks Motorcycle Club, but a spray of gun fire in the early morning hours would kill two gathered there and send another five wounded to area hospitals.
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As detectives returned to the scene today, neighbors in the West Chatham neighborhood told CBS 2 the violence was uncharacteristic of the club.
"They just get together like a social club, like any other motorcycle club," said a woman who lives directly across the street but did not want to be identified.
"I didn't think it was a dangerous place at all. I never heard no fighting to be over there or nothing, " she said.
Sources say an altercation broke out between someone from a Gary, Ind. motorcycle group known as The Street Soldiers and members of The Hawks.
Several other motorcycle clubs may have also been present.
"Emmitt loved riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle and being a part of the club," said Suzette Brown.
Her 38-year-old cousin, Emmitt Suddoth, was shot to death. He was president of the club.
"I just want people to know Emmitt was a loving person, loving son to his mom, loving brother to his two sisters and loving father to his son," said Brown.
"He wasn't a bad guy. he wasn't a hells angel or anything like that," said Suddoth's neighbor in Longwood Manor, Allen Beaton, commenting on his love of motorcycles.
"He rode until it was too cold to ride. He rode all last summer, I know that for a fact," said Beaton.
Authorities say 39-year-old Bryant Glass from the South Side died instantly at the scene.
A Sunday autopsy determined Suddoth died of a gunshot wound to the back, while Glass died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner's office. Both deaths were ruled homicides.
Among the five injured and taken to area hospitals, two are women. The victims at Stroger Hospital include Maurice Harper, transported in critical condition, and Tiffany Smith who was in stable condition.
Suddoth's family says The Hawks Motorcycle Club members typically met on the first of every month, often staying late into the evening. It was a monthly ritual anticipated by all that was marred by violence.
Police returned to the scene of the shooting Sunday evening with a canine unit to check a Jeep Cherokee parked outside of the club. A Chicago police spokesman said he could not say what detectives were searching for.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
