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CNN Live Today
Nightclub Stampede
Aired February 18, 2003 - 10:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A Chicago club owner may soon be facing criminal charges. Officials say the E2 night spot was supposed to be closed. Twenty-one people were squashed to death trying to get out early Monday morning, but the owner says he had a deal to keep the place open.
CNN's Jeff Flock is in Chicago to sort all of this out.
Jeff, any answers yet on that tragedy?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not an answer to the ultimate question, Carol, which is how did that all unfold. Yes, there's a lot of stuff percolating today, a contempt citation going to be sought by the city against the owners of the E2, which is upstairs of the Epitome restaurant. That restaurant is on the down floor. The upstairs is the club. Maybe you see the makeshift memorial that's already sprung up here. There's also 21 crosses with 21 names on it in the alley there.
Conflict of whether the club had the authorization to be open or not. According to the city, there was a court order that kept them from using the second floor. The club owner, as you report, said that he had a deal where the second floor was okay to be opened, just the second level of the second floor was off limits, and he said he wasn't using that. So some conflict there.
In about an hour and a half's time, the mayor is going to speak out on this. He has had nothing to say publicly so far. He -- his mother passed away this past weekend. So it's been a tough time for him.
Showing you some of the pictures of this scene here now, more than 25 hours ago, an incredible scene with bodies that just kept coming out of this nightclub. Some have said it's a scene that you expected to see perhaps in some country far away, but not here in Chicago.
We've been trying to talk to as many people as we can to get some sense of how it all unfolded.
Here is one of the voices we have heard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAKEISHA BLACKWELL, WITNESS: I saw one person at the front of the door as people trampled over her, her chest. They was stomping her with their heels and stuff trying to get out the door, because you couldn't get out really.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLOCK: And the reason they couldn't get out, the front door, I want to show you this piece of videotape that we may have seen before. But I just want to use the raw version of this, and show you the front door. The people you see there, they can't move. It looks like why are they not getting out of the way? Well, they can't move. The bodies sort of fell on top of bodies. People on top of people. The people at the top were at least able to breathe. The people underneath that you can't even see there were crushed.
It is the corner door of this club, the picture we've been showing you, the live picture we've been showing you, is the Epitome restaurant, and the door to that. It was the corner door that led all the way up to E2, which is the dance club, and that is what was blocked by this mass of people, and eventually then, scuffles then began to break out because people tried to get back upstairs to get their loved ones out or friends out, but what they needed to do was get out of the way, so there began to be scuffles, and it was just a scene of chaos out here, dramatic pictures and a dramatic end to this whole thing, and, Carol, as we said, still no real good solid answers as to how this happened.
LIN: Just a mass of confusion. All right, just unbelievable pictures, thank you very much, Jeff -- Leon.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk about those pictures some more. Many of the nightclub victims who were in those pictures were treated by a doctor from Northwest Memorial Hospital. Dr. Christopher Beach was on his way home. He turned around and went back. Thank you for coming to talk with us today.
I want to ask you about the pictures we saw moments ago here, that Jeff Flock showed us. If we can, I'd like to run these again -- if this is exactly what you saw when you first showed up at the scene.
DR. CHRISTOPHER BEACH, ER DOCTOR AT E2 CLUB: Leon, I don't have the pictures in front of me, but by the time I got there, the emergency personnel had cleared away most of the patrons out of the nightclub.
HARRIS: And what was the first thing you did when you arrived there?
BEACH: I was escorted by a police officer right up to the backdoor there, and moved back through the club to take care of some of the patients that were injured and to evaluate the three young people who had died.
HARRIS: So that -- wow, that was the first thing you had to see then.
BEACH: Yes, it was a grim sight.
HARRIS: Had you ever seen anything like this? BEACH: Fortunately, no. I hope to never see it again. It was a very scary sight. In fact, this morning, we had a debriefing in our hospital, and there was a lot of grieving going on related to this incident all over the city.
Each and every one of these emergency medicine and emergency care are really, really heroes, and the city is really grieving now, but they are heroes, not because of what they do or what they did in this situation, but what they do everyday.
HARRIS: Let me ask you, I read this morning in one of the reports about what happened there, that a pregnant woman was dragged out of that scene. Do you know about her condition and did you treat her at all?
BEACH: We didn't take care of that pregnant woman. From what I've heard, I believe she's one of the 21 deceased. We did not take care of her in our emergency department at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
HARRIS: Now I understand you also have a military background. What was one of your first instincts? Did you think this was some sort of a biological attack or terrorist attack when you heard there was a gas or something in the air there?
BEACH: Yes, we've been in preparation for events such as this, and one of my great concerns initially was that this vapor, this spray that was sprayed was in fact a chemical or biological agents, and that's something we have on our minds a lot these days, particularly as emergency care providers, and yes, I did consider that, and fortunately, I was on the line with my nurse the entire time who was on -- in contact with the fire personnel at the scene, and shortly found out thereafter that it was a riot control agent, mace or pepper spray.
HARRIS: Could you detect it in yourself when you went inside, and does that complicate your job when you go into a situation like that, and there might be some mace or pepper spray in the air?
BEACH: Absolutely. It's a strong irritant, and it does irritate the eyes, and the mouth and cause breathing difficulties, and in fact, when I came back to our emergency department, all of our providers had masks on. And we were decontaminating the patients that were arriving. In fact, when I got to the emergency department, my eyes started to burn. So yes, It is a powerful agent, and it's something that certainly probably stimulated an exacerbated this riot at E2.
HARRIS: A lot of these people -- these people who were stuck in the door that we just saw moments ago, they were stuck there for a long time. It took a number of minutes. I don't even know if it was hours or so, but it took a long time to get them out. Is there any way you can treat them while they're still stuck in that situation.
BEACH: Unfortunately, there's just nothing you can do until the mass, the crowd just releases itself and you're able to actually get to those people and evaluate them. Unfortunately, these people were likely dead before we could even get to them, and there's really nothing you could do, unfortunately, until the crowd releases itself.
HARRIS: What kind of stories did you hear when you got to some who were able to talk? Did they tell you anything at all?
BEACH: One young man, as I was walking out of the nightclub that morning, asked me, point blank, said, doc, what do you do in a situation like this? How can you get out of this situation? And unfortunately, I didn't have an answer for him. I said you know, the best of my knowledge, I told him, you know, go the opposite way, go away from the crowd, move away and get away from this crush of this mass of people that squeezes the oxygen out of your lungs.
HARRIS: Did you see -- when you went inside, there's a big question about how many exits there may have been available and whether or not they were chained or blocked by laundry bags or whatever reports were this morning.
Did you happen to witness any of that when you went inside? And could you count how many exits were available to people there?
BEACH: I went in the back entrance there where that stair is. I believe it's the one that was chained, and there were about 12 firemen or so that were standing in my way, and I had a difficult time getting in and out just with 12 people standing there or so, and that was the only leeway that I saw to gain exit from this area, and this enters into a large room with a large staircase going up to the second level, and it was a -- it would be very, very difficult to get anybody out of there in a rapid fashion.
HARRIS: Finally, real quickly, if you can tell us, despite what happened afterwards with the crush of the people and everything, could the use of pepper spray and mace together have actually killed people.
BEACH: The use of this riot control agent can kill somebody if it's given in a large dose directly into the face or inhaled, and it's used commonly to deter riots, because it doesn't cause death in the vast majority of people.
HARRIS: Boy. Dr. Christopher Beach, we thank you for coming in and talking with us after what had to be a very difficult night for you, and for those that you were able to treat. And here's hoping there's somehow, some way a silver lining that comes from this story.
Thanks so much for your time today.
BEACH: Thank you, Leon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 18, 2003 - 10:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A Chicago club owner may soon be facing criminal charges. Officials say the E2 night spot was supposed to be closed. Twenty-one people were squashed to death trying to get out early Monday morning, but the owner says he had a deal to keep the place open.
CNN's Jeff Flock is in Chicago to sort all of this out.
Jeff, any answers yet on that tragedy?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not an answer to the ultimate question, Carol, which is how did that all unfold. Yes, there's a lot of stuff percolating today, a contempt citation going to be sought by the city against the owners of the E2, which is upstairs of the Epitome restaurant. That restaurant is on the down floor. The upstairs is the club. Maybe you see the makeshift memorial that's already sprung up here. There's also 21 crosses with 21 names on it in the alley there.
Conflict of whether the club had the authorization to be open or not. According to the city, there was a court order that kept them from using the second floor. The club owner, as you report, said that he had a deal where the second floor was okay to be opened, just the second level of the second floor was off limits, and he said he wasn't using that. So some conflict there.
In about an hour and a half's time, the mayor is going to speak out on this. He has had nothing to say publicly so far. He -- his mother passed away this past weekend. So it's been a tough time for him.
Showing you some of the pictures of this scene here now, more than 25 hours ago, an incredible scene with bodies that just kept coming out of this nightclub. Some have said it's a scene that you expected to see perhaps in some country far away, but not here in Chicago.
We've been trying to talk to as many people as we can to get some sense of how it all unfolded.
Here is one of the voices we have heard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAKEISHA BLACKWELL, WITNESS: I saw one person at the front of the door as people trampled over her, her chest. They was stomping her with their heels and stuff trying to get out the door, because you couldn't get out really.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLOCK: And the reason they couldn't get out, the front door, I want to show you this piece of videotape that we may have seen before. But I just want to use the raw version of this, and show you the front door. The people you see there, they can't move. It looks like why are they not getting out of the way? Well, they can't move. The bodies sort of fell on top of bodies. People on top of people. The people at the top were at least able to breathe. The people underneath that you can't even see there were crushed.
It is the corner door of this club, the picture we've been showing you, the live picture we've been showing you, is the Epitome restaurant, and the door to that. It was the corner door that led all the way up to E2, which is the dance club, and that is what was blocked by this mass of people, and eventually then, scuffles then began to break out because people tried to get back upstairs to get their loved ones out or friends out, but what they needed to do was get out of the way, so there began to be scuffles, and it was just a scene of chaos out here, dramatic pictures and a dramatic end to this whole thing, and, Carol, as we said, still no real good solid answers as to how this happened.
LIN: Just a mass of confusion. All right, just unbelievable pictures, thank you very much, Jeff -- Leon.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk about those pictures some more. Many of the nightclub victims who were in those pictures were treated by a doctor from Northwest Memorial Hospital. Dr. Christopher Beach was on his way home. He turned around and went back. Thank you for coming to talk with us today.
I want to ask you about the pictures we saw moments ago here, that Jeff Flock showed us. If we can, I'd like to run these again -- if this is exactly what you saw when you first showed up at the scene.
DR. CHRISTOPHER BEACH, ER DOCTOR AT E2 CLUB: Leon, I don't have the pictures in front of me, but by the time I got there, the emergency personnel had cleared away most of the patrons out of the nightclub.
HARRIS: And what was the first thing you did when you arrived there?
BEACH: I was escorted by a police officer right up to the backdoor there, and moved back through the club to take care of some of the patients that were injured and to evaluate the three young people who had died.
HARRIS: So that -- wow, that was the first thing you had to see then.
BEACH: Yes, it was a grim sight.
HARRIS: Had you ever seen anything like this? BEACH: Fortunately, no. I hope to never see it again. It was a very scary sight. In fact, this morning, we had a debriefing in our hospital, and there was a lot of grieving going on related to this incident all over the city.
Each and every one of these emergency medicine and emergency care are really, really heroes, and the city is really grieving now, but they are heroes, not because of what they do or what they did in this situation, but what they do everyday.
HARRIS: Let me ask you, I read this morning in one of the reports about what happened there, that a pregnant woman was dragged out of that scene. Do you know about her condition and did you treat her at all?
BEACH: We didn't take care of that pregnant woman. From what I've heard, I believe she's one of the 21 deceased. We did not take care of her in our emergency department at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
HARRIS: Now I understand you also have a military background. What was one of your first instincts? Did you think this was some sort of a biological attack or terrorist attack when you heard there was a gas or something in the air there?
BEACH: Yes, we've been in preparation for events such as this, and one of my great concerns initially was that this vapor, this spray that was sprayed was in fact a chemical or biological agents, and that's something we have on our minds a lot these days, particularly as emergency care providers, and yes, I did consider that, and fortunately, I was on the line with my nurse the entire time who was on -- in contact with the fire personnel at the scene, and shortly found out thereafter that it was a riot control agent, mace or pepper spray.
HARRIS: Could you detect it in yourself when you went inside, and does that complicate your job when you go into a situation like that, and there might be some mace or pepper spray in the air?
BEACH: Absolutely. It's a strong irritant, and it does irritate the eyes, and the mouth and cause breathing difficulties, and in fact, when I came back to our emergency department, all of our providers had masks on. And we were decontaminating the patients that were arriving. In fact, when I got to the emergency department, my eyes started to burn. So yes, It is a powerful agent, and it's something that certainly probably stimulated an exacerbated this riot at E2.
HARRIS: A lot of these people -- these people who were stuck in the door that we just saw moments ago, they were stuck there for a long time. It took a number of minutes. I don't even know if it was hours or so, but it took a long time to get them out. Is there any way you can treat them while they're still stuck in that situation.
BEACH: Unfortunately, there's just nothing you can do until the mass, the crowd just releases itself and you're able to actually get to those people and evaluate them. Unfortunately, these people were likely dead before we could even get to them, and there's really nothing you could do, unfortunately, until the crowd releases itself.
HARRIS: What kind of stories did you hear when you got to some who were able to talk? Did they tell you anything at all?
BEACH: One young man, as I was walking out of the nightclub that morning, asked me, point blank, said, doc, what do you do in a situation like this? How can you get out of this situation? And unfortunately, I didn't have an answer for him. I said you know, the best of my knowledge, I told him, you know, go the opposite way, go away from the crowd, move away and get away from this crush of this mass of people that squeezes the oxygen out of your lungs.
HARRIS: Did you see -- when you went inside, there's a big question about how many exits there may have been available and whether or not they were chained or blocked by laundry bags or whatever reports were this morning.
Did you happen to witness any of that when you went inside? And could you count how many exits were available to people there?
BEACH: I went in the back entrance there where that stair is. I believe it's the one that was chained, and there were about 12 firemen or so that were standing in my way, and I had a difficult time getting in and out just with 12 people standing there or so, and that was the only leeway that I saw to gain exit from this area, and this enters into a large room with a large staircase going up to the second level, and it was a -- it would be very, very difficult to get anybody out of there in a rapid fashion.
HARRIS: Finally, real quickly, if you can tell us, despite what happened afterwards with the crush of the people and everything, could the use of pepper spray and mace together have actually killed people.
BEACH: The use of this riot control agent can kill somebody if it's given in a large dose directly into the face or inhaled, and it's used commonly to deter riots, because it doesn't cause death in the vast majority of people.
HARRIS: Boy. Dr. Christopher Beach, we thank you for coming in and talking with us after what had to be a very difficult night for you, and for those that you were able to treat. And here's hoping there's somehow, some way a silver lining that comes from this story.
Thanks so much for your time today.
BEACH: Thank you, Leon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
