By Terelle Jerricks, Editor
The Marquee on the historic Warner Grand, read "Bone Thugs-N-Harmony," but fans
were not happy at being robbed of the chance to see them, when the LAPD Harbor
Division gave the order to shut the concert down after receiving a call about
gunshots fired at the venue. The call turned out to be bogus, but there was a
fight in the lobby leaving one man bleeding and unconscious, prompting Lt. Murphy
to shut down the event.
David Luis, a representative of the concert promoters Fam Bam Entertainment
believed that the concert shut down was premature and his security teams had
things under control.
"The concert was going fine, there were no problems, not even one. There was a
fight in the lobby. One guy got knocked out. Our security kicked out the other
guy [the uninjured one] in the fight while someone on my staff called the
paramedics," he said.
The victim was hospitalized and later released, but the police are withholding
his identity.
Luis explained that an officer arrived with the paramedics and upon seeing the
victim, ordered the concert to be shut down. This happened to be just before
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was set to perform.
Luis estimated that approximately 1,100 concertgoers were in attendance. When
the concert was shut down, officers in riot gear were already outside waiting
for them.
As of Jan. 29, the Monday after the concert, the general manager of the Warner
Grand, Lee Sweet explained that the Cultural Affairs Department was working on a
statement to be released Tuesday, Jan. 30. He explained that the department was
still assessing the incident and declined to comment until it was released.
When asked to comment on the event, Capt. Joan McNamara of the Harbor Division
deferred the questioning to the officer in charge during the night of the concert.
Yet she explained what she knew and said, "We responded to a pretty serious call
and had to rescue a gentlemen from being beaten," contradicting Luis's account that
his security were the ones who broke up the fight and called the paramedics.
The police were initially responding to a "shots fired" call but it turned out to
be false. However, Capt. McNamara said that the volunteers with the Warner Grand
were satisfied with the police response.
"I think they [the volunteers of the Warner Grand] were pretty happy with our
performance, they were over their heads,² she said.
Even before the event took place, members of the business community were not too
happy with the choice of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony at the Warner Grand given the general
negative perception of hip hop concerts. Luis believes that this stereotyping of
hip hop cost fans the opportunity to get their money's worth at the concert.
"I've been to country concerts where there were two cowboy-looking guys get into a
fight," Luis fumed. "When two white guys get into a fight, why isn't it a black eye
for country music? The altercation had nothing to do with hip hop. It had only to do
with two people who had a dispute.
That's why we have security."
Luis said he had over 25 security officers at the event, and explained the Warner
Grand insisted on manning the front doors with their own security. "They didn't
allow security to do their job because it was a city-owned venue," he said.
Luis explained that he wanted to have only way in and one way out and an emergency
exit to make it easier to secure the event, but due to various city ordinances for
public owned facilities, that didn't happen.
"Thousands of dollars went into making this happen. Then the people were robbed of
that. I just remember the crowd chanting, "We want Bone Thugs! We Want Bone Thugs,"
he said. "The problem was contained long before the police arrived. They did not
have to shut the event down. If anything, the police action exacerbated the problem."
Inbox