A blood-soaked towel is left behind on the street today in front of the Hawks Motorcycle Club in Chicago, where two people were killed and five wounded during the early morning hours. (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)
During their last conversation, Finley Smiley and his brother-in-law Emmit Suddoth talked about taking a trip to Memphis, Tenn., for a motorcycle event.
Smiley and Suddoth, members of the Hawks Motorcycle Club in Chicago's West Chatham neighborhood, wanted to travel there to support an affiliate chapter.
But about 2 a.m., Smiley got a phone call from Suddoth's cell phone. This time, it wasn't his brother-in-law of 20 years calling to talk about Memphis. It was a Chicago police detective who told him Suddoth had been shot.
"Emmit and I were like brothers," said Smiley, who like other relatives this morning was still trying to piece together the events that left Suddoth and a second man dead at the Hawks clubhouse on Chicago's South Side.
The other man killed early Sunday was Bryant Glass, 39, of the 900 block of West 116th Street. Glass died of multiple gunshot wounds, and Suddoth was killed after he was shot in the back. Five other people were injured in the shooting, which took place at 1:39 a.m., and were in critical condition.
Police were talking to a person of interest in the case, officials said. But no charges had been filed as of early Monday morning.
On Sunday afternoon, family members of both victims were trying to put together the pieces that led to violence in the 100 block of West 75th Street.
Smiley, 51, said the club's members held meetings there on the first of each month. Suddoth was the club's president.
"He was a fun-loving person," Smiley said. "His life was motorcycles."
Smiley attended the meeting Saturday night. But, he said, he left so he could get some sleep because meetings sometimes ran late into the night.
The shooting stemmed from an argument in the club, police said. A gunman, who opened fire after the unspecified dispute, killed Suddoth and Glass and wounded five others, including two women, before fleeing the scene, police said.
Of the five people in critical condition, two were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, two were taken to Stroger Hospital and one was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva said.
Suddoth was pronounced dead at 2:28 a.m. at Stroger, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Details about when and where Glass died were not immediately available, a medical examiner's spokesman said.
Smiley said Suddoth was unemployed but had previously done work rehabbing old houses.
Records indicate that Suddoth was one of seven people named in a federal indictment that alleged a $35 million mortgage-fraud scheme. Federal authorities allege that the group recruited buyers for homes on the South Side and in the south suburbs that were purchased using mortgages based on fraudulent information.
Smiley would not comment on the indictment Sunday.
Suddoth was the youngest of three children. He had two older sisters, including Smiley's wife. Suddoth lived with his mother and stepfather, a retired Chicago police commander, Smiley said. His parents declined to comment Sunday.
Bryant Glass Jr., 19, a senior at Proviso East High School in Maywood, said his father used to ride a sports motorcycle but a few years ago instead began riding a Harley. When he made the switch, Glass said, he saw a change in his father.
Before, "he usually didn't carry a knife," Glass said, adding that his father started to after joining the club. "I knew it was bad because I really didn't hang with him much anymore. I guess it was for my safety."
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