Authorities are hunting for four individuals caught on security camera outside a bar in Chicago’s “coolest” neighborhood where a 25-year-old entrepreneur expecting his second child was beaten to death last month.
First responders found Alexander “Xander” Kazanowski unresponsive at 3:20 a.m. March 25 in the super hip Chicago neighborhood of Avondale after he was asked to leave a bar because of several comments he had made, according to WGN-TV.
After exiting the tavern, Kazanowski reportedly exchanged words with a group of people outside before he was discovered in critical condition, the news outlet reported. He was taken to a local hospital where he died.
Homicide detectives have released the surveillance video of the four individuals being sought, the footage showing three black males and an Asian female, asking viewers if they “recognize any of these people.”
County authorities said his injuries were “consistent with a fatal beating” and posted in Crime Stoppers bulletin a $10,000 reward for information leading to arrests in the incident.
So far, no one has come forward.
The security footage of the four people of interest was captured as they entered the Tune-Up bar on the night of the apparent attack.
It was not clear if the video was before or after the alleged assault.
Avondale, traditionally with a large Polish population, was ranked in 2025 the world’s fifth “coolest” neighborhood by London-based Time Out magazine, higher than any other U.S. city.
Avondale is a world apart from the city’s homicide-ridden south side which has been plagued by an epidemic of shootings for at least the past decade.
Kazanowski founded and ran a home makeover company called Wurk in Chicago. Kazanowski had also built a portfolio as a model, particularly for wedding and bridal shoots, the New York Post reported.
His obituary described him as someone with “unrelenting entrepreneurial spirit” and a “vibrant, creative soul” who “lived life at full speed and with a rare intensity.”
Kazanowski’s partner, Tori Zanoni, who was expecting the man’s second child, remembered him in a post on Instagram, according to the Post.
“To my favorite pool playing, antique thrifting suit wearing, weiner man,” she wrote alongside a photo of them in wedding attire. “Our lives won’t be the same without you.”
He is survived by Zanoni and his daughter Thea, with the couple expecting a second child they had already named John.
A GoFundMe page for the now fatherless children has raised more than $15,000.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for