Multiple suspects have been identified and at least one is in custody after the owner of a restaurant and bar in Waukegan was stabbed multiple times and died Saturday evening.
The Waukegan Police Department and Waukegan Fire Department responded around 11:30 p.m. Saturday to Forty One Fourteen Steaks and Seafood, 2120 North Green Bay Road, for a report of a stabbing.
Prosecutors said Monday that officers arrived to find a victim stabbed and that the offender had fled.
Paramedics rushed the man to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan where he was pronounced dead, the Lake County Coroner’s Office said.
A second ambulance was called to the scene for a second male, who was identified as one of the suspects, who suffered lacerations to the leg.
The coroner’s office said the deceased victim was a 51-year-old Waukegan man.
He was pronounced dead in the hospital’s emergency room.
The coroner’s office has scheduled an autopsy on the man for Monday.
His identity has not been formally announced yet by the coroner’s office but prosecutors said he was the owner of the establishment where the murder happened.
Prosecutors said the 51-year-old victim suffered multiple stab wounds, including to the wrist, back and side.
A second suspect with a stab wound had come to the emergency room at Vista Medical Center East seeking treatment and police were notified.
Another suspect who rode in the car with the second suspect to the hospital fled on foot, prosecutors said.
Officers spoke with witnesses who said one of the suspects and the victim were having a heated discussion in the office at the business.
The argument continued in an area where a gender-reveal party was happening inside the establishment.
One of the suspects told police that the owner told everyone to leave as he would “throw hands” with two of the suspects, prosecutors said.
It escalated into a physical fight between the owner and the suspects, with the owner being stabbed repeatedly.
A nine-inch knife covered in blood was recovered in the kitchen, prosecutors said.
Three suspects were identified and at least one of them has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
The Waukegan Police Department has not yet released any information on the homicide.