I still remember it like it was yesterday.I was 17 years old and living with my godmother on Muskegeon in south Chicago.I used to go clubbing with my buddies from the old hood alot.....the Red Circle,the High Dive,Club Blue,50 Yard line...you name it we had connections to get in illegally lol(seeing that only one of us was over 21 back then lol).Almost every weekend we would hit the hot spots around the south side,and almost everynight we went there was trouble.........usually a fight breaking out or someone threatening to fight,every once in a while someone would faint or fall down a flight of stair or get hit by a car while exiting a club like an idiot,and I think maybe 3 or 4 times if memory serves me correctly,there was shooting,1 of those times I recall 2 men were shot and killed right across from Andies Cocktail Lounge just as we were going inside.

Despite all of that nothing compared to the experience you got when you went to the E2 or Epitome as it was more popularly called......bigger parties and bigger trouble.I recall we only went like twice,and I believe the last time was in late January of 03'.But just as likewise as nothing could compare or prepare you for the size of E2(which was one of the hottest clubs in south Chicago from the late 90's till 03') nothing prepared any of us for the scope of the disaster and tragedy which occured that night.



pic I took of the then closed E2 nightclub while passing it from the south approach in my car on the 3 year anniversary(Feb.17,2006).



Thankfully I didnt go out that night,although I recall my freinds wanting me to go to another club that wasnt E2 on the other side of town.I recalled waking up the morning of Feb17th and turning on the morning CBS2 News channel and seeing:

"Breaking News!:21 clubgoers killed in south side night spot"

lined across the screen as they showed earlier footage of unconcious bodies being carried away from the club to waiting ambulances and crowds of people who exited the club intermingled with Chicago Police and onlookers.



My first reaction was "My god is this a terrorist attack?Or a shooting spree?21 dead.......here?".Though the eery details of what actually caused the carnage would make the tragic story that much more unbelievable.

At about 2:30 am that morning as over 1500 clubgoers were packed into the over crowded nightclub illegally,a fight broke out on the dance floor,A DJ and a security gaurd at the front platform slightly above the throngs of partiers yelled out orders for the fighting to stop,when it didnt the gaurd apparently over sprayed a can of mace into the crowd as the idiot DJ yelled "Anthrax!" .Police say a mixture of respitory difficulty and irritation due to the mace and false warnings from staff and others inside suggesting that it may be a terrorist gas attack occuring,cause wide spread panick and pandamonium in a matter of just seconds.Hundreds rushed for 3 lower floor exits including a small hallway exit on the east side of the building.....it was there that most of the 21 people crushed and asphixiated would die horrible deaths as they were trampled and smothered by oncoming waves of other panicked patrons trying to escape out of the same exit.

I recall just trying to wrap my head around what happened,envisioning the way the club looked the last time I was there..I couldnt.It just made no sense...how could nearly 2 dozen people allow themselves to get stomped to death.A city memorial service for the mostly female victims was held 2 days later on Sunday as authorities charged the nightclub owner,security gaurd and 2 patrons with negligence,assault and public menace.Just last year they owner who has long since gotten out of the club business was convicted on 63 counts of gross negligence and endangering the public.........he was sentenced to 2 years in prison....2 years for 21 lives.










The E2 nightclub disaster was the worst tragedy of its kind in the US,one of the worst disasters in Chicago's history and was oddly followed not 72 hours later by another night club disaster in Rhode Island that left 99 people dead when a fire broke out on stage where the Rock Band Great White was playing in a club called The Station.

Hmm seems like I vaguely remember something about this stampede in the news back when I lived in Bean Town.....such awful circumstances.I certainly recall the Rhode Island club fire,that was just a unintended massacre waiting to happen.

In my youth,I knew alot of kids who liked to hang out at some of the bars around the Kaplan Square nighborhood,I wasnt much of a drinker unless I was out with a girl I was dating ,but back then I knew about the Cotton Club Fire in New York that killed almost 200 people cause my father was a former FDNY firefighter who actually fought that blase back in 42' and he talked about how terrible it was seeing all those bodies strewn about all the time.There was other club fires if I recall in Kentucky,and more recently Russia and Argentina,its just the risk you take when you go into an area that is jam packed with so many other human beings like that.

Mistakes are bound to happen,thus horrible events like these will continue until or unless people get the message.

RIP to the victims

This is very similar to what happened today in Cologne.......so sad.


Thank god my cousins were ok.

I remember long ago back in the 1990's I think a bridge collapsed during a military parade in Kustiev and people tried to run away from it and like 100+ people died.

People should think and not be panicky idiots when they are in a crowd lol.

Wow shocked that I never heard of this.That is horrifically terrible that the emergency services dispatched more police cars than ambulances while people were dying.

I take it that racial profiling must have had alot to do with that decision.

RIP to all the victims and their families.