Aria
Aria: Past violence due to people who can't handle rejection
By adamg - 2/27/08 - 7:30 pmAt a city licensing-board hearing today, Boston Police said there'd been at least 10 previous instances of violence at the Tremont Street club before this past weekend's rampage/shooting, WBZ reports, adding:
Attorneys for the club's owners say the fights were started by disgruntled people who were not allowed into the club.
This is Boston?
By adamg - 2/25/08 - 2:08 pmYeah, cute commercials boston.com's been running of late, no? Unfortunately, boston.com seems to have some problems figuring out Boston neighborhoods. The Missus fumes how the site initially identified Aria as "a South End nightclub:"
... Newsflash Boston.com... Aria ain't in the South End. It's in the Theater District. It says so right on their site. But in case you don't know the difference, I decided to quickly put together a map of the area for you...
However, I'm not sure I'd agree with her that Aria is "deep in the heart of downtown," either.
Fat lady cues up for Aria
By adamg - 2/25/08 - 9:29 am
Alleged shooter.
Held on $1 million bail;
Cops say he told them
he had beef.
WBZ reports city officials have started the process for shutting down Aria following Sunday's Girls Gone Wild shooting/smashing/rampaging.
WBZ also informs us that:
The "Girls Gone Wild" video series features young women in sexually provocative situations.
Just in case you didn't know.
The Globe, meanwhile, reports police were tipped off days before that trouble might happen, that members of the Youth Violence Strike Force were in attendance, that people were patted down at the entrance and yet, somehow, a guy managed to get a gun in:
George Regan, spokesman for Aria, said, "To call this incident bizarre is an understatement. This club spends a lot of time and money on security, and there were seven to nine police officers in there when this happened, so I don't know what else can be done."
George Regan, hmm?
The Herald focuses on the scene inside the nightclub as the rampage erupted:
While trying to escape, she said she fainted from terror recalling the 100 souls who died pushing and clawing their way toward the doors of The Station nightclub in Rhode Island as it burned to the ground in 2003.
Aria is accessed from Tremont Street by a steep, narrow staircase
Hmm, maybe the Fire Department should be joining the investigation?
And the Herald has a different quote from Regan:
... (Aria) takes security very seriously. When you send your kid to school, you don't expect them to be shot there, either.
Nightclub turns into fight club
By adamg - 2/24/08 - 12:26 pmAria, 246 Tremont St., might have some explaining to do to city licensing officials after an all-out brawl shortly before the scheduled end of "Girls Gone Wild" night early this morning:
... The fight grew to about 20-35 people, as patrons started to swing champagne bottles striking people about the head and torso. Officers, at this time, were engaged with the crowd and trying to break up the various fights that had broken out.
While actively engaged with the crowd, officers heard one loud bang consistent with the sound of gunshots, followed by two to three more. An officers that was on a platform looked in the direction of the gunshots and observed the suspect standing about five feet away with his hands extended holding a black firearm randomly firing shots into the crowd. ...The suspect refused to heed officers' commands to drop the weapon as they attempted to remove the gun from his possession, and kept trying to reach for his waist.
After disarming the suspect, officers were now faced with an attack from the crowd who attempted to attack officers. Officers requested assistance from other units and alerted the dispatchers that officers were in trouble. Numerous units from around the city responded to the scene and after some time were able to secure the scene.
Initial tally: Damion Jamaal-Anthony Haley, 24, of Milton, charged with the shooting. Four injured people, including a state trooper, taken to the hospital. Haley already had six outstanding warrants, police say.
Channel 5 reports police shut down the streets around the club and brought in dogs to control the rampaging mob.
The Herald reports a Boston police officer got into a crash while racing to the scene. Channel 4 reports it was a K9 unit at the intersection of East Berkeley and Tremont.
