Posted on 02/20/2003 1:48:51 PM PST by JustPiper
Dwain Kyles, owner of Epitome/E2 Chicago nightclub, was awakened by a phone call early Monday from his longtime business partner, Calvin Hollins.
If it had been about a fight or some other disturbance, Kyles may have fallen back asleep. But Hollins was calling from the police station. By the time Kyles threw some clothes on and made it to his nightclub, the lifeless bodies were already stacked up at the door.
"I couldn't get through it," he told me, explaining why it took so long for him to issue a personal apology to the families of the 21 people who were killed and 50 others who were injured at his popular nightclub.
"I couldn't get through a conversation about it," Kyles said in a telephone conversation I had with him late Tuesday night.
Although he has been caught on TV cameras arriving for court appearances, this is his first in-depth interview since the tragedy.
Kyles seemed to still be reeling from the shock of the horrendous events that have shattered so many lives--including his own.
"I was grilled by police for 10 hours yesterday," he said. "We have been focused on trying to keep me out of jail. I get choked up every time I think about the victims."
On Wednesday, Cook County Judge Daniel J. Lynch denied the request to have Kyles thrown in jail, citing the city's failure to properly notify Kyles that it was seeking jail time.
But Epitome/E2 Chicago, a venture that Kyles has struggled to keep open for 15 years, was locked up.
"I just couldn't get through it," Kyles said again. "I was crying half the day.
"I will never be able to prove it, but the fact of the matter is what really caused the panic was after the pepper spray, somebody started yelling this is a 'terrorist attack' and 'this is poisonous gas.'
"About 200 or 300 people tried to fit through one door," he said.
"When people see the tape--you are talking about mass hysteria. It was horrible. When I got there, there were bodies lying in my place," Kyles said, breaking down.
Despite transcripts that appear to back up the city's claims that the second floor was not to be used, Kyles still insists the city officials are trying to deflect blame for the number of fatalities.
"Wait until the videotape is released," he said. "You will clearly see that too little was done to save these people. You'll see that the door is wide open and that it wasn't locked.
"Not only was the door open, but if this is supposed to be the city's emergency response, then we are in trouble. There are all kinds of people just walking around looking. They could have pulled the frame of the door out to get to these people. What kind of emergency response was this?" he asked.
"The tape shows people walking back and forth, waving and talking, instead of getting the frame out. At that point, people were standing on top of bodies."
Kyles, who is widely known in Chicago's social circles, is now being vilified across the country.
"The city is trying to paint me as an irresponsible lawbreaker. My children [Kyles has three sons] can't go to school because people are saying their father is a murderer," he said.
As for the confusion over who was supposed to provide security for Sunday night's event, Kyles steadfastly denied club owners were responsible.
Marco Flores, the party promoter, claims he was responsible for reimbursing the club for the cost of security, but he did not hire any security workers himself.
"I have never heard of Team One Security [until the promoter brought them in]," Kyles said, referring to a name workers used to describe the security at the club on the night of the tragedy.
"My people have never been allowed to carry anything other than the flashlights and walkie-talkies. My people don't carry pepper spray," he said. "But we didn't have the authority to tell Team One how to do their job."
Obviously, Kyles is under tremendous stress. It was nearly 11 p.m. when we talked and he still had about 60 messages on his cell phone. Still, I had to ask why? Why hadn't he at least held a press conference to speak to the grief-stricken families?
He had thought about it, he said. But he doesn't think he's ready to talk about it.
"I have friends who are identifying all of the families affected by this," he said. "I am going to send a personal letter to every family that lost someone. I'm going to try to send flowers to every funeral."
"It was a horrible, horrible accident that could have happened anywhere," he said. "People panicked. People were vomiting and there wasn't anything like an orderly procession toward the door."
Like many other black professionals in this city, I know Kyles. I have grown to respect him as a hard-working businessman and like him as a classy and personable black man.
So like many others, what has happened at Epitome/E2 has left us, as a colleague puts it, feeling empty.
In the aftermath of such a tragedy, letters and flowers won't do.
This guy and many of his statements steamed me!
The victims
Twenty-one people died in the crush of bodies at the E2 Chicago nightclub.
DaShand Ray, 24, of Hillside. The part-time student worked as a packager for Federal Express and was a regular at the club. The Proviso West High School graduate was contemplating going to school full time to become a sports broadcaster, said his father, Howard Ray. The two had talked about ways to finance college. "Everybody knew him at the club, but he was talking about cutting back on going out to concentrate on his studies," his father said. "He was a good kid that never got into any trouble."
Kevin Gayden, 24, of the West Side. He was a father of a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy, and Kevin lived with his sister. He attended Farragut High School, dropped out and sister Sheree Mosley, 31, recently persuaded him "to start the GED . . . to go and sign up for the program," she said. He wasn't doing much work. "He baby-sat and stuff, he wasn't career-oriented yet," she said. But he was a good father, and "laid back." He was a regular at the club. She said he was trampled by the crowd.
Teresa Johnson-Gordon turned 31 Sunday. The Berwyn resident was a mother of three--aged 9, 6 and 4--and had been celebrating her birthday at the club. She worked as a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home, according to her mother, Gale Garrett-Butler of Broadview. She last talked to her daughter Sunday evening. "She told me, 'Mom, I'm going out tonight.'" She believes it was the first time her daughter went to the club.
Nita Anthony, 24, of the South Side. Nita was the mother of four--aged 7 months, 3, 5, and 6. She eventually planned to marry Brian Lee, the father of her youngest child who was helping to raise her children, said her mother, Jessie Anthony. She worked as a security guard at the emergency ward of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "She was loved by everyone," her mother said. Nita, a 1997 graduate of Garfield High School, hoped to become a law enforcement officer someday. Jessie Anthony said her daughter worked a 16-hour shift the day before her death and wanted a night out to unwind.
Debra Gill, 29, of the West Side. A graduate of Marshall High School, Gill was a homemaker and the mother of five children, ages 3, 5, 8, 10 and 11. "She was a good child. She was very loved," said her mother, Windy Gill. Gill had gone to the nightclub with one of her brothers, Marvin, to celebrate the birthday of her boyfriend, Tabari Harris, her mother said. Both her brother and boyfriend survived, Windy Gill said. Her mother said Gill was "very loved" by her large family, which includes three brothers and multiple uncles and nephews.
Maurice L. Robinson, of the West Side, would have turned 24 Thursday. He attended Orr High School and later transferred to Martin Luther King High School. He and his girlfriend, Tanika Graham, had been involved for more than five years, and the couple had a daughter, Tania, about a month ago. He loved playing with his nieces and nephews and was ecstatic when his daughter was born. "She looked just like him,'' Graham said. Two of his close-knit friends, Michael Wilson and Damien Riley, also died early Monday.
Michael Wilson, 22, of the North Side. He was single, and a father of a 3-year-old boy nicknamed "Little Mikey." Wilson lived with his mother, 39-year-old Jacqueline Wilson. Her son graduated from Taft High School and was taking computer programming classes. In high school, he played football, which troubled his mother because he had asthma. But eventually he quit and "really got into computers," she said. "He was trying to get back on track, trying to go back to school downtown to learn programming. . . . He was the sweetest person, he would do anything you asked him to." He would have turned 23 on March 3.
LaTorya McGraw, 24, of the South Side. She had a 6-year-old daughter, Shapara, and was three months pregnant. She was a hairdresser, working out of the home, which she also shared with her mother, Rochelle Hicks. McGraw's friend called her around 2:45 a.m. saying LaTorya "stopped breathing, she was on her way to the hospital. . . . She was dead before the ambulance got there," Hicks said. While still in the club, the friend relayed to Hicks, "some boy picked her up and tried to get her down the stairs to the door, but it took him 20 minutes to get to the front door." McGraw attended Phillips High School, dropping out in 10th grade, working at her father's grocery store and volunteering at a local Boys and Girls Club.
Bianca Ferguson, 24, of the West Side. She lived with her mother. A graduate of Richards High School in Oak Lawn, she was a seasonal worker for the U.S. Postal Service and worked summers at Brookfield Zoo doing a variety of jobs, said her cousin, Kimberly Jimmar. "She loved music and she loved to dance," her cousin said. "She was pretty and vibrant and always happy." She was also a good cook, Jimmar recalled: "Her specialty was Sunday dinner--greens, corn bread, sweet potatoes. Soul food."
Charita Rhodes, 19, of the West Side. Her sister, Chiquita Rhodes, said Rhodes went to the club with a friend, and they got separated in the chaos. "She told me a fight broke out, they were holding each other, they started pushing," Chiquita Rhodes said. Charita was an Austin High School graduate taking classes at Malcolm X College and had worked at McDonald's. She wanted to be a nurse, said her father. He walked out of the Cook County medical examiner's office with a manila envelope, bearing Rhodes' name and holding her few personal effects and sadly said: "That's my daughter."
Damien Riley, 24, of the West Side. He attended Marshall High School, dropped out in the 10th grade and continued to take classes to get his GED. He loved to play basketball and worked for his grandmother's cleaning company where he ran a cleaning crew, at one point employing his friend Michael Wilson, who also died early Monday, said Riley's mother, Linda Hooker. He had a 4-year-old daughter, Asia.
Antonio Myers, of the West Side. He worked as a line supplier at Avon in Morton Grove, according to several close friends, who were supposed to meet him at the club but couldn't make it. He graduated from Manley High School and worked the day shift for the past two years at Avon, and was due on the job Monday morning. More than a dozen co-workers had to leave Monday when they heard the sad news. With a girlfriend, he recently had a daughter.
Nicole Patterson, 22, of the West Side.
David Jones, 21, of the South Side.
Demetrica Carwell, 23, of the South Side. Carwell was a proud mother of 4-year-old Laneisha. Mary Carwell, 39, said when her daughter became pregnant while attending Richards High School, she became determined to finish. She did. Recently Demetrica Carwell had built a comfortable life for herself, her mother said. She was working in the administrative office of a security company at Midway Airport. "That was my heart," Mary Carwell said. "We laughed. We joked. We shopped. People thought we were sisters."
Eazay Rogers, 21, of the South Side. Eazay Rogers, a mom of a 3-year-old and a baby who is 3 weeks old, had gone to the nightclub with her boyfriend and the father of her kids, Torrence Cox, said Rogers' grandmother, Mary M. Rogers. "She was very high-spirited," Rogers recalled. "She was just a take-charge person . . . and she was such a good mom. I told her I was proud of her." Rogers, because she had just given birth, wasn't working, though she had previously worked at department stores, her grandmother said.
Nicole Rainey, 25, with addresses in Bolingbrook and Chicago. She attended Austin High School and was the mother of five children, the youngest of whom is 3 weeks old. This was her first night out since having her new baby. At least six of her cousins made it out alive.
Robert Brown, 31, of the West Side. He worked construction and was a graduate of Cregier High School. He had taken classes at Malcolm X College. He married his high school sweatheart and had three children, 13, 9 and 2. Brown had been invited to a party at the club, possibly for a friend's birthday. Orlinda Brown, the victim's cousin, called him "kind and loving and funny." She said it was unusual for him to go out, since he was a family man.
Chanta Jackson, 26, of the South Side. She worked for the city's Revenue Department as a cashier and brought up two kids, aged 8 and 3, and an 8-year-old niece. "Very beautiful young lady, very outgoing. She was family-oriented, she took care of her children first of all, every now and then she'd go out, she loved to dance, loved to go shopping," said her aunt, Johnnie Logan.
Danielle Greene,23, of Broadview. An operator with AT&T Broadband, she was taking classes at a downtown school, said her cousin, Shaperee Hollins. "She didn't have any kids, but she spent a lot of time with us, with her family. She was like my big sister, she was always doing things with us." Her cousin described her as fun-loving and easygoing. "She took care of all the nieces and nephews and cousins. She bought everybody something at Christmas and she took us to Water Tower downtown."
Charles Lard, 43, had two grown kids, aged 20 and 24. His wife, Patricia, said, "He just went out with some friends." Her sister, Ann Brown, 35, called the death "a tragedy--everyone is just going completely crazy about it. It don't make no sense, what happened. How could you relate to something like this?"
For the photos:
He's worried about jail but there are, get this, 35 children no longer have a parent!
What broke me heart was this about Charita Rhodes:
He walked out of the Cook County medical examiner's office with a manila envelope, bearing Rhodes' name and holding her few personal effects and sadly said: "That's my daughter."
Yes, it's all about you, Dwain.
Tear out the door frame? These well connected black pimps and Jesse have bitched and moaned so often at City Hall over trivia that no white guy is going to do anything with direct instructions. The death trap was cited many tmes. Let's see a record of the action that Kyles, Jesse and their henchpersons took to make the city's life miserable over this bar. Chickens home to roost!
When Jackson got to E2 at the crack of dawn Monday, he got out of his car and attempted to give his car keys to a high ranking police officer and asked him to have the car parked!
The high ranking officer looked over his shoulder to see if Jackson was talking to him, and turned and walked away.
On WLSam this morning, they said something about when Jackson arrived on the scene, he asked an associate "am I too late?"; the associate said, no, they're just setting up the cameras. Jackson replied, "then I'm not too late"!
I'm afraid you're right, Tacis. And from the sound of Kyles' statement, he's going right to the top:
"I will never be able to prove it, but the fact of the matter is what really caused the panic was after the pepper spray, somebody started yelling this is a 'terrorist attack' and 'this is poisonous gas.'
Before he's done, George Bush and Tom Ridge will be charged with reckless endangerment.
Yep, only in Cheekago are we used to Jackson's preening and pimpin'.I did see him turning every possible angle for every news channel.I know any slime that can profit off of being , or I should say 'hiding' behind Dr. King when he was assasinated, well not only is he not fit to be a preacher, he is the devil's advocate.
Triple J is a detriment to all Americans. Heard he also showed up outside Sis Daley's funeral today. Sheesh...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.