Police Cite Building Owner Where Chicago House Party Took Place Despite Coronavirus Lockdown

The owner of the home said it was her son that threw the party.

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Image via Getty/Chicago Tribune

Chicago police car.

The owner of the building in which a Chicago house party with an estimated attendance of 1,000+ took place this past weekend is going to get hit with fines, due to that rager's complete disregard for social distancing guidelines. 

According to TMZ, city officials will levy fines against the property's owner, and also cite her for disorderly conduct on account of violating Illinois' stay-at-home orders. Just how much these fees will cost are not yet known, but they'll be determined by a court at some point in the future. A city alderman also said the owner is now "on notice." 

The person allegedly responsible is the adult kid of that owner. He had keys to the property and disabled alarms so the party could take place. Officials state that he's had at least one other party of this size prior to this most recent incident. 

Lori Lightfoot, Chicago's mayor, said those in attendance will be held accountable, eventually.

"What happened in that scene was just foolish and reckless," Lightfoot said. "There’s got to be a level of personal responsibility for that. Millennials aren’t children."

Here's a few videos that A.) Will give you an idea of the scope of the party, and B.) Will allow you to determine whether said attendees are Millennials or not (maybe they are, but at some point Millennials got to age out of this irresponsible-young-people demographic. Start blaming Gen Z for some shit). 

On Sunday, when footage of the party bubbled to their attention, the police sent out a statement. Obviously things have changed since then.

"We are aware of a video circulating on social media depicting a large house party inside of an alleged Chicago residence. While we cannot authenticate the nature or location of the gathering, we want to remind everyone of the social distancing requirements in place," that statement had said. "CPD will disperse crowds in violation of social distancing requirements, and if necessary, issue citations or as a last resort, enforce via arrest."

The homeowner, who's a first responder, told NBC 5 that she was working a 24-hour shift when her kid, who's 26, threw the party. "I was astounded when I saw the video," she said. "I came home, my house was clean, nothing was out of place... And after that, some police came to my house and said, 'Were you aware that it was a party at your house?' And I was like, 'No, I wasn't aware.' And then they showed me the video."

The woman's son, Janeal Wright, said that he invited around 20-30 people over to remember two gun violence victims but the number of people that showed up became much larger.

"With us being young, us being millennials, like the mayor said, we didn't really know how severe this was," Wright said, per NBC 5 . "It really hasn't been hitting home for us like that, but now I see the error of everything."

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