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Funerals held for Chicago nightclub victims
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Mourners started burying the 21 victims of Chicago's deadly pre-dawn nightclub stampede, with at least five funerals across the city Friday. More funerals were scheduled in the next few days for those killed at the E2 nightclub. On the city's West Side, people remembered 24-year-old Damien Riley as a great friend, always ready with a joke and willing to help others. "He brought a wonderful inspiration to people that could not see their way," said his uncle, the Rev. Ray Hicks of Abundance Universal Christian Center. Panic broke out at the second-floor nightclub early Monday when a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight. Patrons bolted down a narrow stairway, trampling people caught in their path. Riley and two of his friends, Michael Wilson and Maurice Robinson, both 22, died in the crush. Marcus Gandy, 21, of Chicago, was with Riley at the nightclub but escaped before people jammed the stairwell. He said he performed CPR on Riley when he was brought out. "I just think it's terrible. I don't understand why somebody's got to die so young," he said. Many of the young people at the funeral, including Gandy, wore T-shirts with the words, "The Good Die Young" or "In Loving Memory" written above pictures of Wilson, Robinson and Riley. "He was just a wonderful child. You can look at the crowd and tell," said Riley's grandmother, Mae White, as she scanned the church packed with about 500 mourners. "He was respectful to everybody." Funerals and memorial services were also planned Friday for Bianca Ferguson, 24, David Jones, 21, DaShand Ray, 24, and Teresa Johnson-Gordon, 31. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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