Families angry after video of Chicago club stampede shown on TV

CHICAGO -- Families of victims of the deadly Chicago nightclub stampede that left 21 dead are angry that a videotape of the disaster was televised before they had a chance to see it themselves.

"We should have had the opportunity to see it privately and, I don't know, find some type of sense to all this before it was blasted over the TV," said Howard Ray Sr., whose son died in the Feb. 17 disaster.

The grainy footage from the E2 nightclub's internal video surveillance system was broadcast Friday after a judge ordered its release to the public.

Lawyers for the city had argued against the release, saying it would be emotionally damaging to victims' families. Police also opposed the release, contending that investigators hadn't yet talked to all the witnesses as part of their criminal investigation of the stampede.

Authorities estimate that several hundred people pushed into the stairwell of E2 early Feb. 17 after a guard used pepper spray to break up a fight on the dance floor. All the victims died there.

Ray said seeing the tape on television forced him and his wife to imagine the last moments of their son, 24-year-old DaShand Ray.

"It was like a recurrence of the incident," he said. "My wife thought she saw him, but we're not sure. The only thing we know for sure is he was at the bottom of the pile somewhere because he didn't come out."

Sheree Mosley said she was watching the news Friday when, without warning, blurry images of the stampede that killed her 24-year-old brother, Kevin Gayden, appeared on her television screen.

"Nobody told me they were going to show it," she said.

"Somebody should have come to me and showed me first."

Ray and others said they did receive calls from police shortly before the tape ran, but said that still didn't prepare them for what they saw.

"I've been able to grab hold of the situation and move forward, but my wife, she broke down," Ray said. "That was her baby son."

"We still can't believe she's gone and they show that," said Lakesha Wilson, who lost her 25-year-old cousin, Nicole Rainey. "That wasn't right. They should have let the families see it first."