Police continue to look for the suspect who shot an Army veteran working as a hookah lounge bouncer after he turned away a person trying to enter the Chicago venue.
Austin McAllister’s family struggles to make sense of the tragedy that left some of his children orphans. A mother of the man’s children died from COVID-19 earlier in 2022.
The 38-year-old man was working as security at the end of the year “BYOB New Year’s Eve party” at The Lyons Den in the Ukrainian Village of the Windy City when he was fatally shot by a disgruntled partygoer who was refused entrance to the club, according to ABC 7 News.
The suspect is said to have tried to forcibly enter the establishment with a loaded firearm around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 1. Gunfire was exchanged between the intruder and two other men. As a result, McAllister was hit multiple times and later rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly afterward, becoming one of the first to lose their life to gun violence in 2023.
The other man was in his 20s, according to law enforcement. That unnamed victim was shot in his left calf, taken to the same hospital, and was said to be in good condition.
McAllister’s death came on the anniversary of his own mother’s and months after the mother of his children succumbed to COVID-19-related symptoms.
With this dark cloud already over the family’s head, his children are calling for justice.
One of his children, Ahaniyah McAllister, said, “I just want justice for my dad. We’ve been through a lot, from losing our mom to COVID to now our dad being killed,” WGN 9 reported.
Family members say the father of six and Iraq War veteran was working an honest job protecting others to provide for his family. He also worked as a personal trainer.
Denotra Allen, his sister, explained, “He got hurt in Iraq to come home to Chicago and be killed because he turned a patron away from the hookah lounge.”
“He wasn’t out there partying,” Allen said. “He wasn’t drinking. He was out there working.”
