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Authorities: Nightclub in violation of court order
Police describe 'mass chaos' when people headed for the door.
The nightclub where 21 people were killed and 55 injured early today in a stampede was operating in violation of a months-old court order meant to close it down, authorities said.
``The owner knows damn well that he is not to open that second floor facility,’’ Fire Commissioner James Joyce said late this afternoon.
The nightclub has been cited for repeated building code violations and the city has been sparring in court with the owners of the nightclub since July 2002, officials said.
An attorney for the city of Chicago said officials plan to go to court as early as Tuesday to seek criminal contempt charges against the owner.
Early this morning, hundreds stormed the exits of the South Side nightclub, only to be stopped by locked or blocked doors, authorities said.
“These bodies were smashed…faces, torsos, legs. It’s like a steamroller rolled over them,’’ said Rev. Eric Sloss Sr. of New Spiritual Light Baptist Church on the South Side, who helped families identify remains at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago.
“It’s horrific,” he said.
Firefighters responding to E2, a dance club on the second floor of the Epitome restaurant building at 2347 S. Michigan Ave., found a number of locked or blocked doors and used sledgehammers and pry bars to open some of them so that people could be rescued, Fire Commissioner James Joyce said at a media briefing.
Inside one door, near the building’s kitchen, rescuers found four victims in cardiac arrest, Joyce said.
“We found doors locked. We found doors blocked by storage and in some cases what appeared to be bags of laundry, maybe restaurant-type laundry. Those are (fire code) violations,” Joyce said.
Most of the deaths appeared to have happened on the front staircase of the nightclub, and were due to cardiac arrest, the fire commissioner said. He called the locked doors elsewhere around the building a "contributing factor" in the deaths and injuries.
"There are people who were trying to get out and could not get out,” Joyce said. “We can’t explain how management or ownership would allow that. We understand that they have some tight security procedures, but we can’t allow that to get in the way of safety.”
Joyce said the club had "some history of violations. It doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming number of violations. That last time we were in there, in the fall, we did not observe any locked doors."
Twenty-one people were confirmed dead this afternoon at eight hospitals and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Authorities said 19 people were in cardiac arrest when emergency workers arrived at the club. Many of them were revived, but four were declared dead at the scene. Hospitals were deluged with victims ranging from the critically injured to those suffering from asthma-like symptoms.
At the U. of I. Medical Center, family members of West Side resident Kevin Gayden, 24, said he was one of three fatalities received by that hospital.
“They just trampled and stepped on him like he was a rug,’’ said his sister Sheree Mosley, 31. Mosley said her brother was the father of two children, ages 2 and 5.
Nichola Aughtry, a 30-year-old hair stylist from the Austin neighborhood, was at Mt. Sinai Hospital, waiting for a girlfriend to be released after being treated for injuries.
“The whole time I was in there, I felt a bad vibe. And I knew something was going to break out,’’ Aughtry said, adding the place was more packed than usual when she got there late Sunday night. “You couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t dance.”
After a fight broke out somewhere in the room – it was so crowded, Aughtry said she saw nothing of the altercation – the crowd rushed the front stairwell. She found herself carried along.
“I was trying to stay up,” Aughtry said. “I was holding onto the banister with both hands because I saw once you went down, you couldn’t get back up.”
She said she had to step over people and eventually got out the front door.
More than 100 people crowded the emergency room at Stroger Hospital of Cook County, where three of the dead had been taken.
One woman asked a sheriff’s police officer if he had seen her daughter, and said she had been to two hospitals already. The officer advised her any hospital within a 10-mile radius of the club had been advised it could receive victims.
Some went to the South Side headquarters of Rainbow Push, where Reverends Jesse Jackson and James Meeks led a noon prayer service.
“They died for no reason . . . and we deserve to know why,” wailed one mourner who did not give her name. "My brother didn’t do nothing to nobody,” cried another woman. In a prepared statement, Mayor Richard Daley said, "This was a terrible tragedy that never should have occurred. It will be fully investigated, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again."
A fight broke out between two people, possibly two women, about 2 a.m. in the club, witnesses said. At least 1,500 and possibly as many as 2,000 patrons were gathered there at the time.
Joyce said the first floor had an occupancy placard for 327 people, but the second-floor did not have a placard.
Witnesses said security guards used mace and pepper spray to try to break up the fight. (Police today cautioned they had not yet confirmed this allegation.) In the ensuing melee, club goers rushed down a staircase leading to the front door. A side door reportedly was chained shut.
In the crush, the glass front doors were jammed closed, and club goers piled up behind them, survivors said.
"Everybody smashed; people crying, couldn’t breathe,’’ said club goer Reggie Clark. "Two ladies next to me died. A guy under me passed out.’’
“People were banging on the door,” said Carlisa Howard, 26, of Chicago, who escaped from the building. “Girls were taking off their boots, pounding on the door” to try to get out.
Other witnesses said they saw victims with crushed faces and broken legs, a pregnant woman who was badly hurt and others pleading for water, air and ice. People were packed so thick on the floor, even four or five others pulling at them couldn’t free them.
“There was a lot of massive panic and crushing injuries,” said Chicago Deputy Fire Commissioner Larry Matkitis. “There were people piled up at the bottom of the staircase. It was a very chaotic scene.”
“It appears a disturbance from within led to a mass chaos where people headed for the door. Most of the fatalities appear to have been crushed or had injuries due to suffocation,’’ said police Officer Ozzie Rodriguez.
“We are interviewing and seeking out any witnesses that could help us determine exactly what happened inside this club this particular night," police Supt. Terry Hillard said at the media briefing. "We also are retrieving, reviewing and attempting to download high-tech video from the establishment.”
Among the issues police are trying to pin down are whether mace, pepper spray or both were discharged in the crowded room, and if so, by whom, Hillard said.
"If there’s anyone who was at this particular nightclub at this particular time and have information our investigation, please call” Area 2 detectives at 312-746-8252, Hillard said.
He also disclosed police have investigated 80 incidents that allegedly have occurred in and around the nightclub since 2000 -- “a variety of things, everything from simple battery to battery, things such as that.”
Ald. Madeline L. Haithcock (2nd) said she could recall no past problems with the club. “I’ve been here before. It’s a very nice club,” she said. “I can’t tell you anything that was wrong with it.”
Jackson urged community members to help each other.
“We are asking area ministers to go to hospitals,’’ he said. “My people are overwhelmed with the suddenness of this. At a time like this, you have to lean on your faith.’’
UPDATE:
Victims Of Epitome Night Club Stampede Identified
CHICAGO -- The medical examiner has begun identifying
the fatal victims of the incident at the Epitome Night Club, where 21 people
were trampled and crushed to death while trying to escape some kind of pepper
spray or Mace that security guards had sprayed on the dance floor.
At 3 p.m., Police Superintendent Terry Hillard said all but one victim have been
identified. Some of the names are still being withheld until relatives are
notified.
Of those who were killed, 12 were female and nine were male. The victims ranged
in age from 21 to 43.
Among those who were killed:
 | Nita Anthony, 24
| Robert Brown, 31
| Bianca Ferguson, 24
| Kevin Gayden, 24
| Debra Gill, 29, of 2309 W. Adams St.
| Danielle Greene, 23
| Chanta Jackson, in her 20s
| David Jones, 20
| Teresa Johnson-Gordon, 31
| Charles Lard, 43
| Latorya McGraw, 24, of 6725 S. Wolcott Ave.
| Antonio Myers, 34
| Nicole Rainey, 24
| Dashand Ray, 24
| Damien Riley, 24
| Maurice L. Robinson, 22, of 6455 W. Wabansia Ave.
| Michael Wilson, 22, of 1219 N. Wolcott Ave.
This list will be updated as more information is availible. |
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