By MITCH DUDEK and JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times
Marques Gaines | photo provided
Marques Gaines was assaulted and knocked out. He lay unconscious in the street of a busy River North intersection, as passersby watched, some apparently stealing from his pockets. No one helped him and minutes later, he was run over by a taxi.
On Friday, the death of the 32-year-old bartender was ruled a homicide.
Gaines had left a downtown motel after finishing a work shift, then went with a few colleagues to have a drink at Mother Hubbard’s, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Cook County Circuit Court.
After leaving the bar early on the morning on Feb. 7, Gaines went into the 7-Eleven store at State and Hubbard to buy a bag of chips. As he was leaving, he got into an altercation with a man who’d just been kicked out of the store by a security guard, according to the suit.
The man who’d been booted from the store assaulted Gaines, punched him and left him lying in the street about 4:20 a.m.
Neither the security guard nor a store clerk attempted to help Gaines “in any manner whatsoever and, instead, simply stood on the sidewalk as he lay unconscious and unprotected in the street,” the suit stated.
After lying on the street for two minutes, Gaines was run over by a cab; he was pinned underneath for three minutes, according to the suit.
Footage from several nearby security cameras captured the incident.
Gaines was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery, but died shortly thereafter, according to the suit.
An autopsy found he died of multiple blunt force injuries due to an automobile striking a pedestrian laying on the street due to an assault, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The manner of death has been ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Police are still looking for the man who struck Gaines and then walked away.
The cab driver stayed at the scene and wasn’t charged or ticketed.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of Phyllis Nelson, Gaines’ aunt, who alleges that 7-Eleven store owners, operators and employees are culpable in the death because they did not properly train personnel and did not provide adequate security during the store’s overnight hours.