Twenty Years of New York Nightclub Deaths
in 1979.
Last weekend, New York nightlife suffered another black eye with the gruesome death of 24-year-old Ingrid Rivera, a ticket agent for British Airways, who was beaten to death at the Times Square karaoke club Spotlight Live during Lil' Kim's 33rd birthday party. Syed Rahman, a 24-year-old barback, was arrested Thursday and charged with murder; he left her body on the roof of the club, where it was discovered by a maintenance worker. We wondered how many other nightclub patrons had met with tragic ends in the last 20 years. (One disconcerting discovery: bouncers, who are supposed to provide some modicum of security, figure in a disturbingly high number of incidents. Mothers, don't let your boys grow up to be muscle!)
April 17, 1989: Virgil Charles Sylvia, 21, is stabbed to death outside of "illegal, floating club" Payday near Gramercy Gramercy Park.
March 25, 1990: 87 people are killed at Happy Land, another illegal club in the Bronx, when Julio Gonzalez sets the place on fire after arguing with his ex-girlfriend, who was a coat check girl there.
Nov. 23, 1990: David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo shoot bouncer Marcus Peterson outside of Palladium, the dance club on 14th Street that is now a New York University dorm.
June 28, 1991: Steven Venizelos, owner of trendy East Village after-hours spot The World, is found shot to death on the club's balcony.
January 19, 1995: Sean McKenzie and Orlando Parker are killed at East Flatbush club Legend when a man opened fire in the middle of the dance floor.
June 21, 1996: Brothers Victor and Simon Dedaj beat, stab, and shoot to death a waiter and a bouncer at the Upper East Side outpost of Scores.
April 9, 2001: After being ejected, 16-year-old Terrence Davis is stabbed to death outside of Tunnel at West 27th St. and 12th Ave.
April 13, 2003: Bouncer Dana Blake is stabbed to death outside of Guernica on Avenue B by Isaias Umali after a dispute concerning smoking in the club, which had just been banned.
May 23, 2006: Bouncer Stephen Sakai shoots Gustavo Cuadros to death outside of Opus 22 in Chelsea.
February 25, 2006: Graduate student Imette St. Guillen is choked to death by Darryl Littlejohn after leaving The Falls in Soho, where he was a bouncer.
July 25, 2006: 18-year-old Jennifer Moore is killed after leaving Chelsea's Guest House.
Feb. 3, 2007: Orlando Valle dies after being pushed down an elevator shaft by actor Granville Adams at BED in Chelsea.
Nov. 23, 2007: Shamel McKinney, a friend of the rapper Fabolous, is stabbed to death at Duvet in the Flatiron district.
It is odd that bouncers are connected to so many of these incidents. Do a lot of these guys come from a central source?
One thing to keep in mind is that there are an estimated 65 million entries into bars, nightclubs and lounges every year in New York. The fact that more than a dozen people have died in the past two decades isn't good news, but that is a very small number when you consider the amount of liquor, hormones and money that nightlife entails...
It seems like it's safer to dance than driving your car down the highway...
Have fun.
Gamal Hennessy
New York Nights
These are only the deaths that have made headlines, there have been way more than 12 deaths over 20 years.
Pouring out a drink for all my people lost over the years...too many!
These are only the deaths that have made headlines, there have been way more than 12 deaths over 20 years.
Pouring out a drink for all my people lost over the years...too many!
you forgot the person killed at Stereo. and jennifer moore, may she rest in peace, was picked up hours after leaving guest house by a sick rapist-murderer after being abandoned by her friends and refused her car by NYPD for being intocixated.
Jennifer Moore wasn't killed at the club or by someone from the club.
She was an irresponsible girl who drank as a minor, abandon her friend, who passed out drunk; with strangers, and obviously intended to drive while intoxicated.
Why is Jennifer Moore included in this list?
jennifer moore...?hmmm so the list should be everyone who was ever killed who once attended a nightclub.... and wasnt david lemus acquitted of that palladium murder charge
The list of people who have been killed in clubs could be a lot more than 12, but that would assume that there is a whole group of people who get killed in clubs without any newspaper ever mentioning it.
How does that happen? Do reporters only write about nightclub incidents where celebrities are involved? Is this case news worthy only because Lil' Kim was in the buidling?
This list might not be 100% complete, but it's more likely that if someone dies in a club, some reporter will cover it. It's less likely that there is a long list of people who just die unmentioned and unnoticed in a club. Death is like sex, it sells newspapers.
Millions of people go out every night in New York and the vast majority of them make it home. The concept that there is a long list of bodies hidden behind the bar doesn't seem to make much sense...
Have fun
Gamal Hennessy
New York Nights