Two Chicago sources familiar with Allen and his hometown associates - past and present - yesterday connected a group of Allen associates to a fatal shooting in the parking lot of the famous Rock ’n’ Roll McDonald’s last August.
The group had been attending a birthday party for former Celtic Antoine Walker at the downtown club Excalibur when a fight occurred, extending into the McDonald’s parking lot.
Curtis Ellis, 25, was killed, and another person riding in the same car with Ellis was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
According to both sources, this is the same group that was with Allen when the Celtics guard had an early morning fight with Marktwain Johnson and Nigel Odum in a Chicago restaurant in August 2005.
Though Allen was charged with aggravated battery, the charges from the 2005 incident were later dismissed.
One source said that Allen later offered to pay the medical expenses for one of the two men - which man is unclear - though Rahsaan Gordon, the attorney representing Johnson and Odum in a pending civil suit, denied that claim yesterday.
Allen will return to Chicago in July for a court date in the civil suit. At that time he will have to testify about the 2005 incident.
Both sources said Allen’s current troubles are somehow connected to last summer’s incident, and that the Celtics guard allegedly has incurred a heavy financial debt to someone in Chicago and he now refuses to repay.
I'm not going to pass judgement without knowing all the facts, but if these rumors are true, it sure sounds like Tony needs some new friends (and a few good lawyers and financial consultants). All in all it seems like a very unfortunate situation.