Chicago to charge nightclub owners
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Chicago to charge nightclub owners
The city will file criminal contempt charges against the owners of the nightclub where 21 people were killed in a stampede because a court had ordered the club to close, Mayor Richard M. Daley said Tuesday.
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That would make sense police officers have more brains than that... -
weatherlover427
Officials Ask Judge to Jail Club Owner
2 hours, 13 minutes ago
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By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO - A day after 21 people were killed in a nightclub stampede, Chicago officials asked a judge Tuesday to jail the owner for at least a year for allegedly operating the place in defiance of a shutdown order.
The city asked Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Lynch to impose the criminal contempt of court sentence on Dwain Johann Kyles, saying he ignored the judge's previous order to shut down because of building code violations that included failing to provide enough exits.
"You don't have a right to disobey a court order until someone catches you or until a disaster happens," Mayor Richard M. Daley said.
The owners of the E2 nightclub contended they had a deal to stay open, despite the building code violations.
The city sought immediate action on its petition to hold Kyles in criminal contempt, but Lynch told city attorneys that Kyles had not yet been served with the papers. The judge also said he would give the two companies 10 days to answer.
The city also asked the judge to fine Kyles and his company, Le Mirage Inc., which owned the nightclub, and to fine a second company, Lesly Motors Inc., which owns the building.
Twenty-one people were killed and 57 were injured early Monday after pepper spray was sprayed into the crowd, prompting a stampede down a stairwell to the exit.
A telephone call to Le Mirage on Tuesday was not immediately returned.
and I saw this from USA Today:
Witnesses say panic at Chicago nightclub was sparked by brawl
By Debbie Howlett
USA TODAY
CHICAGO -- Lakeshia Blackwell was pinned so tightly against the front door of the E2 nightclub Monday morning, she could barely breathe.
She was being crushed by a surge of people on the narrow stairway behind her. The glass doors in front of her were locked. Security guards shouted for people to stay calm. A woman, pinned beneath the mass, cried out in fear and pain.
''I knew if I moved, I was going to get hurt,'' Blackwell said.
And then the doors opened for the several hundred patrons. Whether it was the security guards or firefighters who had just arrived, no one can be sure. But Blackwell acted on instinct.
''As soon as I could run, I got the hell out of there,'' she said. ''Everybody was running. They just ran out of the building. A girl was still on the floor and they just trampled her.''
At least 21 clubgoers -- nine men and 12 women, ages 21 to 43 -- died in the melee at the popular late-night club. At least 57 were injured. Officials said Monday that the club was operating in violation of a court order issued last fall because of building code and fire code infractions. The order affected the second-floor bar, but not the first-floor restaurant.
Witnesses said the panic was touched off by a fight between two women, one of them armed with a box cutter, on the crowded dance floor.
Several other patrons jumped into the scrape, and disc jockey Vaughn Woods alerted security guards over the loudspeakers. ''Security tried to handle it, and some Mace or pepper spray was used, and people panicked,'' Woods said. ''Everybody tried to get out of the same exit.''
The club has at least three exits: the front, back and side. Clubgoers apparently rushed to flee through the front entrance alone. Fire officials said the back and side doors were blocked but passable.
Videotape may have clues
Police officials are viewing videotape from the club's monitoring system to get a better idea of what happened.
Cory Thomas, 33, said he had arrived at the club to pick up two friends just after 2 a.m. As he waited outside, he saw people inside the club start to back up against the double glass door at the front.
''You could see a mound of people. People were stacking on top of each other, screaming and gagging, I guess from the pepper spray. The door got blocked because there were too many people stacked up against it,'' he said.
''I saw them taking out a pregnant woman. She was in bad shape. I saw at least 10 lifeless bodies,'' Thomas said.
Tanesha Halloway, 21, recalled being on the dance floor when the DJ interrupted a song and announced over the loudspeaker, ''Break up the fight, break up the fight.''
''The DJ kept playing the music after that,'' she said. ''I tried to clear out of the area and thought it would calm down in a few minutes.''
Halloway said she sensed something was amiss as the crowd began moving toward the front exit and the music stopped. She felt a stinging and burning in her eyes and throat and went to the women's bathroom, which by then was filled with both men and women splashing their faces and flushing their eyes with water.
She next remembers waking up as two men had carried her outside into the cold air through a side door. ''I'm glad I passed out, because we were headed toward the stairs where everyone else was going,'' Halloway said. ''All of the chaos was on the stairs.''
Halloway was taken to Mercy Hospital for treatment. She said she is grateful to have survived. ''I feel blessed,'' she said.
Amishoov Blackwell, 30, was checking his coat on the second floor when people started rushing past him. ''It was pandemonium,'' he said.
One of those quickly on the scene was Chris Beach, an emergency room physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Beach had just finished a night shift when he was paged with reports of mass casualties and a vapor.
''One of my first thoughts was that it was terror-related,'' he said. He rushed to the club and found chaos. ''It was a very scary scene.''
Beach said he began helping the triage of patients. Most of the injured had bruises, bumps and broken bones. Those who died were most likely killed from cardiac arrest, authorities said. ''In riot situations, when you are pressed together like that, you can't expand your lungs to get oxygen to your brain and your heart will stop beating,'' Beach said.
The nightclub has existed at the site just south of downtown Chicago for many years in several incarnations, first as La Mirage, then Heroes and The Clique, and now E2.
Elroy Smith, program director at WGCI-FM, Chicago's top-rated urban radio station, said, ''It's a known landmark in Chicago. Mention E2 to anyone in the African-American community and they know about it.''
Smith has hosted promotional events at the club featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys and others. Sean ''P. Diddy'' Combs and Cuba Gooding Jr. are among the stars who have partied there.
''It's not your average nightclub,'' Smith said.
The club has been plagued by problems for years. In 1996, boxer Mike Tyson was accused of attacking a 25-year-old woman from Gary, Ind., at the club, which was then managed by a close friend of Tyson's, Calvin Hollis. Less than a month ago, police shot a man brandishing a gun outside the club at closing time, about 4:30 in the morning. Two people were injured by errant shots by the gunman.
Chicago police have responded to at least 80 serious incidents, mostly assaults, at the club since 2000, according to police Superintendent Terry Hilliard. Some of the incidents apparently occurred after the court order was issued.
Stories need sorting
Hilliard said investigators are trying to sort out conflicting stories about the source of the spray and were retrieving a video from inside the club. ''We will get to the bottom of this,'' he said. ''Right now our investigation is at full tilt.''
Outside the club, as darkness began to fall, people gathered to pray for those lost in the stampede. They left flowers and stuffed animals against the corner of the building.
And some came in search of answers.
One of those was the Rev. Greg Gunn of the Fellowship Missionary Church, who was awakened by a phone call about 4 a.m. from a friend who believed his sister was at the club and was in a panic trying to find her.
''He said, 'I think my sister is dead.' ''
Gunn tried contacting police, but was unable to get through. He drove to the club and found the street jammed with squad cars and ambulances. ''There were people outside crying, people coughing and screaming for their friends. It was crazy.''
By late afternoon, Gunn got good news. The man who thought his sister was killed in the club said she was all right.
Gunn remained outside the club for much of the day, speaking to others and offering words of comfort to families. ''Today is just the beginning. We're going to have a lot of funerals, and we need to help with the healing process."
2 hours, 13 minutes ago
Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!
By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO - A day after 21 people were killed in a nightclub stampede, Chicago officials asked a judge Tuesday to jail the owner for at least a year for allegedly operating the place in defiance of a shutdown order.
The city asked Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Lynch to impose the criminal contempt of court sentence on Dwain Johann Kyles, saying he ignored the judge's previous order to shut down because of building code violations that included failing to provide enough exits.
"You don't have a right to disobey a court order until someone catches you or until a disaster happens," Mayor Richard M. Daley said.
The owners of the E2 nightclub contended they had a deal to stay open, despite the building code violations.
The city sought immediate action on its petition to hold Kyles in criminal contempt, but Lynch told city attorneys that Kyles had not yet been served with the papers. The judge also said he would give the two companies 10 days to answer.
The city also asked the judge to fine Kyles and his company, Le Mirage Inc., which owned the nightclub, and to fine a second company, Lesly Motors Inc., which owns the building.
Twenty-one people were killed and 57 were injured early Monday after pepper spray was sprayed into the crowd, prompting a stampede down a stairwell to the exit.
A telephone call to Le Mirage on Tuesday was not immediately returned.
and I saw this from USA Today:
Witnesses say panic at Chicago nightclub was sparked by brawl
By Debbie Howlett
USA TODAY
CHICAGO -- Lakeshia Blackwell was pinned so tightly against the front door of the E2 nightclub Monday morning, she could barely breathe.
She was being crushed by a surge of people on the narrow stairway behind her. The glass doors in front of her were locked. Security guards shouted for people to stay calm. A woman, pinned beneath the mass, cried out in fear and pain.
''I knew if I moved, I was going to get hurt,'' Blackwell said.
And then the doors opened for the several hundred patrons. Whether it was the security guards or firefighters who had just arrived, no one can be sure. But Blackwell acted on instinct.
''As soon as I could run, I got the hell out of there,'' she said. ''Everybody was running. They just ran out of the building. A girl was still on the floor and they just trampled her.''
At least 21 clubgoers -- nine men and 12 women, ages 21 to 43 -- died in the melee at the popular late-night club. At least 57 were injured. Officials said Monday that the club was operating in violation of a court order issued last fall because of building code and fire code infractions. The order affected the second-floor bar, but not the first-floor restaurant.
Witnesses said the panic was touched off by a fight between two women, one of them armed with a box cutter, on the crowded dance floor.
Several other patrons jumped into the scrape, and disc jockey Vaughn Woods alerted security guards over the loudspeakers. ''Security tried to handle it, and some Mace or pepper spray was used, and people panicked,'' Woods said. ''Everybody tried to get out of the same exit.''
The club has at least three exits: the front, back and side. Clubgoers apparently rushed to flee through the front entrance alone. Fire officials said the back and side doors were blocked but passable.
Videotape may have clues
Police officials are viewing videotape from the club's monitoring system to get a better idea of what happened.
Cory Thomas, 33, said he had arrived at the club to pick up two friends just after 2 a.m. As he waited outside, he saw people inside the club start to back up against the double glass door at the front.
''You could see a mound of people. People were stacking on top of each other, screaming and gagging, I guess from the pepper spray. The door got blocked because there were too many people stacked up against it,'' he said.
''I saw them taking out a pregnant woman. She was in bad shape. I saw at least 10 lifeless bodies,'' Thomas said.
Tanesha Halloway, 21, recalled being on the dance floor when the DJ interrupted a song and announced over the loudspeaker, ''Break up the fight, break up the fight.''
''The DJ kept playing the music after that,'' she said. ''I tried to clear out of the area and thought it would calm down in a few minutes.''
Halloway said she sensed something was amiss as the crowd began moving toward the front exit and the music stopped. She felt a stinging and burning in her eyes and throat and went to the women's bathroom, which by then was filled with both men and women splashing their faces and flushing their eyes with water.
She next remembers waking up as two men had carried her outside into the cold air through a side door. ''I'm glad I passed out, because we were headed toward the stairs where everyone else was going,'' Halloway said. ''All of the chaos was on the stairs.''
Halloway was taken to Mercy Hospital for treatment. She said she is grateful to have survived. ''I feel blessed,'' she said.
Amishoov Blackwell, 30, was checking his coat on the second floor when people started rushing past him. ''It was pandemonium,'' he said.
One of those quickly on the scene was Chris Beach, an emergency room physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Beach had just finished a night shift when he was paged with reports of mass casualties and a vapor.
''One of my first thoughts was that it was terror-related,'' he said. He rushed to the club and found chaos. ''It was a very scary scene.''
Beach said he began helping the triage of patients. Most of the injured had bruises, bumps and broken bones. Those who died were most likely killed from cardiac arrest, authorities said. ''In riot situations, when you are pressed together like that, you can't expand your lungs to get oxygen to your brain and your heart will stop beating,'' Beach said.
The nightclub has existed at the site just south of downtown Chicago for many years in several incarnations, first as La Mirage, then Heroes and The Clique, and now E2.
Elroy Smith, program director at WGCI-FM, Chicago's top-rated urban radio station, said, ''It's a known landmark in Chicago. Mention E2 to anyone in the African-American community and they know about it.''
Smith has hosted promotional events at the club featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys and others. Sean ''P. Diddy'' Combs and Cuba Gooding Jr. are among the stars who have partied there.
''It's not your average nightclub,'' Smith said.
The club has been plagued by problems for years. In 1996, boxer Mike Tyson was accused of attacking a 25-year-old woman from Gary, Ind., at the club, which was then managed by a close friend of Tyson's, Calvin Hollis. Less than a month ago, police shot a man brandishing a gun outside the club at closing time, about 4:30 in the morning. Two people were injured by errant shots by the gunman.
Chicago police have responded to at least 80 serious incidents, mostly assaults, at the club since 2000, according to police Superintendent Terry Hilliard. Some of the incidents apparently occurred after the court order was issued.
Stories need sorting
Hilliard said investigators are trying to sort out conflicting stories about the source of the spray and were retrieving a video from inside the club. ''We will get to the bottom of this,'' he said. ''Right now our investigation is at full tilt.''
Outside the club, as darkness began to fall, people gathered to pray for those lost in the stampede. They left flowers and stuffed animals against the corner of the building.
And some came in search of answers.
One of those was the Rev. Greg Gunn of the Fellowship Missionary Church, who was awakened by a phone call about 4 a.m. from a friend who believed his sister was at the club and was in a panic trying to find her.
''He said, 'I think my sister is dead.' ''
Gunn tried contacting police, but was unable to get through. He drove to the club and found the street jammed with squad cars and ambulances. ''There were people outside crying, people coughing and screaming for their friends. It was crazy.''
By late afternoon, Gunn got good news. The man who thought his sister was killed in the club said she was all right.
Gunn remained outside the club for much of the day, speaking to others and offering words of comfort to families. ''Today is just the beginning. We're going to have a lot of funerals, and we need to help with the healing process."
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