Monday, Sept. 27, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.
Metro Police and Clark County Health District officials today will begin trying to figure out what should have been done to prevent the chaos that erupted at a district-sponsored party for teens over the weekend.
But at least part of the problem appears to be the confusion over whether it was mandatory or optional for the event sponsor to hire off-duty Metro Police officers.
The police department's Special Investigations unit will be reviewing how the party was handled, whether regulations were followed and whether anyone will be held accountable for problems that led to a handful of teens being sent to hospitals, dozens more requiring treatment from ambulance crews, several arrests and Metro's use of a Taser gun on at least one teen.
Police said there were far too few security officers at the event to control the thousands of teens who attended.
After at least one fight prompted police to close the party, frantic cell phone calls and news reports about the turmoil from the party at Events Center Las Vegas, at Sunset Road and Las Vegas Boulevard South, Saturday night resulted in parents swarming the area and panicking when they could not find their children, in part because police lines were keeping them separated.
Marchand Spencer left her house at Pecos and Bonanza roads as soon as she heard the Kick Ash Bash was being closed down. She left just before 10 p.m.; it was hours before she found her 15-year-old daughter, Cheetarah Green.
"When I got there, it was so chaotic. I was told I couldn't get in there," Spencer said about trying to find her daughter and friends at the event that was sponsored and organized by the Clark County Health District through a youth anti-smoking group called XPOZ.
"I drove around for two hours looking for them, worried," she said.
It was the fourth annual dance of its type for 13- to 20-year-olds, but it got off to a rocky start with fighting in the parking lot. Police who responded to the fight then decided there was not enough security -- they counted five security officers and at least 2,500 teens -- so police started closing down the event just before 9 p.m., Sgt. Chris Jones said.
Health District spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said she was told 30 security officers were there. She said district officials will meet today to discuss what happened, to see if it could have been avoided.
One topic could be Jones' statement that Metro had offered to arrange for off-duty officers to work security at the event, but the Health District did not take it up on that offer.
Metro Special Events Sgt. Clarke Paris said the use of off-duty officers is determined by the police department, not the event sponsors, and that the sponsors have to notify the department in writing prior to the event and must provide the insurance and a hold-harmless waiver for the department.
"Every event is different. We go by if we think there will be a public safety issue or a burden to area command," Paris said.
The volunteer off-duty officers are generally used for concerts, movie filmings, boxing matches and the like, but also work malls on weekends or church carnivals and events similar to Saturday's, Paris said.
The department is paid $50 per hour per officer, with the money being used to cover the cost of overtime, workers compensation benefits and equipment such as cars and motorcycles. Metro makes no profit on the event, Paris said.
Two weeks ago, 160 such officers were hired at Bernard Hopkins-Oscar de la Hoya fight in Las Vegas.
Jones said a request came in late last week from the Health District for such officers for Saturday's event, but they "never got back with our Special Events section. They never provided the insurance or hold harmless" agreement, he said. "They did not follow through."
Sizemore said police declined to offer use of off-duty officers because the insurance was not in place in time for the event.
She said the event organizer, Maria Ezzarelli, health educator with the district, two days prior to the event contacted Metro special events "as an option."
"We were not told it (use of off-duty officers) was a requirement," Sizemore said. "We already had security personnel staffed. The security plan was in place."
The past events drew a few hundred people at UNLV the first year, 1,200 at the same place the next year and 2,500 at Cox Pavilion last year. The fire permit this year allowed for a crowd of up to 3,078, Sizemore said.
None of the past events used off-duty Metro Officers, she said.
Most of the medical care required at the event was the result of two fire extinguishers that were set off in the exiting crowd around 9:30 p.m., expelling a dry chemical dust that combined with the anxiety of the moment and created chaos, according to Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach.
Jones said there were reports pepper spray may have been released inside the event center, but he said he knew of no police officers who used pepper spray there.
In the end, four people were taken to University Medical Center and about 50 more were treated at the scene for breathing problems, Leinbach said. One more teen was taken to UMC after being injured in the traffic outside the events center, Leinbach said.
None of the injuries was serious, Jones said.
Four youths were arrested, including one believed to be responsible for setting off at least one of the fire extinguishers, Jones said.
One of those arrested was "drive stunned" with a police Taser, which means the police touched the person with the Taser instead of shooting the person with the Taser prongs. The drive stun delivers a "localized voltage, and is not a total body effect," Jones said.
With teens streaming from the center, Metro Police officers blanketed the area from Las Vegas Boulevard South and Russell Road to Sunset Road and Gillespie Street. Jones did not have an estimate of how many officers were at the scene.
For an hour and a half police lines blocked all cars from Sunset Road, where many teens were told to wait for their rides.
Jones said that with so many teens spilling into the street, the police had to block traffic to ensure their safety.
"We didn't want a kid to get hit by a car," he said. "This could have been much worse."
While frustrated parents circled the area, trying to reach their children or to find a place to meet them, cell phones made a difference for many.
Katharia Edwards, 14, who was waiting with Cheetarah Green for her mother to pick them up, said that where they sat, teens who were able to reach their parents on cell and arrange a meeting place were allowed out of the police-encircled area. Green did not have a cell phone, Katharia said.
About 12:45 a.m., after being told by the Metro lieutenant that she would be allowed through police lines, Green arrived at the events center and picked up the girls.
Tyler Conklin, 15, who had made arrangements for his mother to pick up him and his friends at 11:30 p.m., got a call on his cell phone from his mother as soon as she saw on the 11 o'clock television news that there was a problem.
"I about had a heart attack when I saw the police cars and knew where he was at," Holly Conklin said. "I was worried that something had happened to him. I zoomed out there."
Mother and son made arrangement for the teens to meet her at the Jack-in-the-Box north of Sunset Road.
Jones said despite the frustrations of some parents, the police and fire officials should be lauded for how they handled the situation and prevented any serious injuries.
For Jones, the problems were caused by the lack of security at the event.
"The planners didn't do their job, we did," he said.
The event was paid for with money from the tobacco settlement, Sizemore said. Tickets cost $5, but were $3 with an Internet coupon.
There were not any similar problems at the three previous XPOZ dance parties, she said.
The Health District had contracted with radio station KLUC-FM 98.5 FM to promote the party.
KLUC General Manager Marty Basch, whose daughter attended the event, said his station was not involved in planning the event, and he declined to comment on the specifics of what happened.
"Luckily no one was hurt," he said.
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