Charges dropped in Chicago nightclub stampede

[November 13, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Prosecutors have dismissed criminal charges against one of the owners of a Chicago nightclub where a stampede in 2003 killed 21 people and injured dozens more.

Cook County prosecutors on Wednesday dropped involuntary manslaughter charges against E2 nightclub co-owner Dwain Kyles.

The decision follows last year's acquittal by a judge of three other men who also were charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Authorities have said the stampede started when someone used pepper spray to break up a dance floor fight on the club's second level. Patrons fled down narrow stairs toward an exit and their bodies piled up behind a door they couldn't open.

[Associated Press]

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