21 die as club erupts in chaos

CHICAGO -- A disturbance at a crowded South Side nightclub early Monday sent hundreds of people rushing for the exits, killing at least 21 and injuring an unknown number of others.\n"Everybody smashed; people crying, couldn't breathe," said clubgoer Reggie Clark. "Two ladies next to me died. A guy under me passed out."\nTwenty-one people were confirmed dead, Chicago Police spokesman Pat Camden said.\nThere were more than 1,500 people in the two-story Epitome Night Club on the city's South Side when someone released pepper spray or Mace into the air sometime after 2 a.m., Fire Commander Will Knight said.\n"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.\nCory Thomas, 33, went to the club to pick up two friends. As he waited outside, he saw people inside the club start to back up against the glass front door.\n"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.\n"I saw them taking out a pregnant woman," Thomas said. "She was in bad shape. I saw at least 10 lifeless bodies."\nKristy Mitchell, 22, was one of the people trampled on the stairway.\n"People were stomping my legs," she said. "When they pulled me up, I was dizzy and I couldn't breathe."\nKnight said the total number of injuries was unclear because many of those with minor injuries were being taken to hospitals by family and friends.\nThe flow of the crowd pushed Amishoov Blackwell, 30, back down the stairs and he fell on top of several people, he said. Firefighters rescued him about 30 minutes later.\nThe melee marks one of the nation's deadliest stampedes.\nIn December 1991, nine young people were crushed to death in a gymnasium stairwell while awaiting a celebrity basketball game in New York.\nIn December 1979, 11 people were killed in Cincinnati in a crush to get into a concert by The Who.