20 years since E2 nightclub’s deadly crowd crush – Chicago Tribune newstrendslive

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Torriana Cox doesn’t remember much about her mother. After all, she was only 3 and her brother barely a few weeks old on the day when their mother, Eazay Rogers, became one of 21 people who died in a crowd crush in the E2 nightclub 20 years ago.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 2003, a security guard deployed pepper spray to break up a fight inside the second-floor E2 nightclub, which sent patrons in a panicked rush toward the front stairwell. As people fell facedown on the stairs, more patrons climbed and fell atop them. Some were fatally crushed or asphyxiated, and 50 others were injured. Witnesses said the stack of bodies reached nearly 6 feet high.

Before chaos erupted at 2:25 a.m., over 1,100 people had crowded inside the South Loop nightclub, which was only capable of holding 240 individuals. Authorities later determined there weren’t enough exits for the size of the crowd. But there was also no record that the city had issued an occupancy placard for the establishment.

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