Editor's Note: This story was originally published on May 23, 2004.
A 24-year-old man who died in March after struggling with bouncers at one of Anchorage's busiest nightclubs lay motionless on the bar's floor for at least one to two minutes before anyone realized he wasn't breathing, a videotape of the incident and related police reports show.
The tape shows Gerald Haynes lying facedown on the floor of Chilkoot Charlie's Swing Bar after employees wrestled him to the floor, held him down and then handcuffed him in front of a crowd that at times is cheering. It's the final scene in a seven-minute video that begins with Haynes and his younger brother being escorted out of the crowded bar by security staffers early in the morning of March 20. The tape shows Haynes refusing to leave, being grabbed from behind by a Chilkoot's employee and then fighting to break free from the six men who try to subdue him.
When the roughly four-minute fight is over -- when the bouncers had Haynes pinned to the floor and he suddenly stopped struggling and they were able to put handcuffs on him -- more than a minute ticks away with no one realizing he needs medical attention.
Haynes is alone and motionless on the floor when a DJ announces to the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, on your way out, how about a round of applause for the Chilkoot Charlie's security staff!"
The crowd cheers.
"You don't f--- around with these boys!" the DJ says.
Moments later, after the video camera was shut off, security staff members realized Haynes was unconscious, police reports say. They rolled him over and tried to revive him. A call was made to 911. But Haynes never regained consciousness. He was rushed by medics to the hospital, where he was declared dead about one hour later.
The state's chief medical examiner announced on April 1 that Haynes died of "positional and compression asphyxia." The examiner, Franc Fallico, explained at the time that asphyxia can occur in a number of ways: "In this particular case, what caused it was the position Mr. Haynes' body was in. He was lying on the floor and others were pressing against him." Fallico ruled the death a homicide.
Drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the death, Fallico said.
On May 4, police and prosecutors concluded there wasn't sufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges.
As the family prepares to file a civil suit, friends of Haynes are pushing for standardized training for bouncers statewide that would include first aid and lessons on proper restraint methods. At least one state legislator is looking into it.
The videotape of the scuffle, along with police reports of the incident, show that while Haynes refused to leave and fought with bouncers, employees failed to get him out when he was just feet from an exit. They appeared to lose control of the situation once it escalated and, once they had him restrained, didn't notice Haynes needed medical attention until it was too late.
It's unclear whether Haynes could have been revived had he received medical attention sooner.
One bar employee later told police that the incident of restraining Haynes was "a complete cluster."
"We were all trying to take him down but all trying to take him down in our own way, " he said.
The tape was made by the bar's security staff. Chilkoot's started videotaping patrons being escorted off the premises three or four years ago to avoid frivolous lawsuits, according to owner Mike Gordon. The tape was immediately turned over to police, but they refused throughout their investigation to comment on what it showed.
Police released a copy of the video to the Daily News on Wednesday after the newspaper requested it under public records laws. Also made public were about 250 pages of police reports and interviews with witnesses and bar employees. Names on the police reports were blacked out, and police did not release the medical examiner's report.
Members of the Haynes family, who believe there should have been criminal charges, did not want to be contacted for this story, said their attorney, Andrew Lambert. The family objected to the release of the tape, according to letters their attorneys sent to the city. Lambert has said the family intends to sue the bar.
Attorneys for Chilkoot's parent company, Jadon Inc., did not object to the tape's release, city records show, but Gordon said in an interview that he didn't think it should be made public, out of respect for the family. He also said he didn't think it was newsworthy.
IT STARTED WITH ARGUMENT
The video begins with Haynes being escorted by the bar's head of security across the crowded Swing Bar area of Chilkoot's. It is around 2:20 a.m. "Super Freak" is playing in the background. It's difficult to hear.
Police reports say Haynes had been asked to leave after he got into an oral confrontation with another patron - a man who had a history with Haynes' younger brother, Chris Haynes, 23, who was also at the bar that night.
Court and police records say that last summer Chris Haynes and three of his friends beat up the patron's younger brother, leaving him permanently injured -- physically scarred and partially blind in one eye, according the victim's family.
Chris Haynes pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct for his part in the assault. Both he and the patron admitted to police that there has been bad blood between them since the fight.
It's not clear who started the argument in the bar on March 20. Gerald Haynes and the other man were inches apart when the bar's security chief broke them up. The security chief told police she heard Gerald Haynes tell the other man something along the lines of "don't ever threaten my family." She said she told Gerald he had to leave.
The video shows Gerald, Chris and the security chief headed toward a nearby exit, where a doorman is sitting. When they reach the door, Gerald turns around and starts talking to the woman, who is being followed by other security staffers. Over the music Gerald can be heard saying: "It's not fair."
Chris told police later that his brother was asking why he was being kicked out and not the other guy, who the brothers believed started things. "He tries to talk things out, and he's always been like that, " Chris said.
The female bouncer recalled: "He turned and stopped and said, 'No, I'm not leaving.' " She said Gerald insisted that the other guy be kicked out too. "I said it's not about you, it's not about what you want, " she told police. "You're gonna go. You're the aggressor here."
The brothers had a coat and credit card inside the bar and Chris asked if he could get them, police reports say. "And I said we need to get outside, " the security chief told police. On the video, another security worker props open the exit door and shows Gerald the way with his hand.
"Let's go, guys. Let's go, " someone can be heard saying.
The tape shows the female bouncer putting her hand on Gerald's arm, as if to guide him out the door. Gerald flings her hand away by lifting his arm quickly.
The woman told police later that she doesn't remember touching Gerald's biceps or him flinging his arm. Similar discrepancies are found in other people's recollections of events. "It all happened really fast, " Chris concedes during an interview with police.
Chris puts his hand on his brother's arm, as if to say "Let's go" and then starts to walk out the door himself. Gerald turns to follow, but just before crossing the door's threshold, he plants his feet and doesn't move. Bouncers tell police he pushes back toward them.
A male bouncer grabs Gerald from behind -- it is not clear from the video whether it is a chokehold or an arm across his chest -- and pulls him back into the bar. Chris turns and lunges for his brother and the bouncer. Chaos erupts. In an instant, the music stops, beer bottles can be heard falling over, and the men struggle and grunt. The video camera is trained on the wall, the floor, all over the place. It captures tangles of arms and legs before being held steady again.
The Haynes brothers are both muscular. Gerald was a high school wrestler, and Chris was a star high school football lineman.
Chris is handcuffed relatively quickly. On the video, he is on the floor, his shoeless feet sticking out from between two bouncers holding him down.
It takes the security workers longer to subdue Gerald. It is difficult in the video to see exactly what is happening. Several bouncers are crowded around him. At one point, one of the security staffers appears to throw a punch. The bouncers wrestle Gerald to the floor, but he springs back to his feet.
"I mean, he was freaking out, " a witness in the bar told investigators later. "The guys kept trying to grab him, and they weren't getting him. ... They were screaming, you know, 'Get down, get down, stop fighting, get down, get down.' He wasn't getting down."
MINUTES OF CHAOS
As Gerald bolts to his feet, a bouncer appears to grab him from behind in a headlock. One bouncer told police thatGerald picked him up and threw him onto a table. The bar's night supervisor on duty at the time said Gerald "just kept pushing himself back up" when they tried to keep him down.
"I mean, he was really, really fighting, " the supervisor said.
Bouncers get one of Gerald's hands in cuffs -- they actually put two cuffs on one arm during the chaos, the security workers tell police later -- but struggle to get him to give them his other hand. One of them told police: "He was still fighting, and that's when I put my hand on his back like this ... and put my ... knee into the side of his head. I had him pinned down ... shortly thereafter he had stopped and he was calm."
The bouncer told police he remembered Haynes saying at some point before he stopped straining: "OK, OK, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done."
The tape does not clearly show the moment when Haynes goes limp. But about four minutes after the fight begins, the bouncers stop struggling with him. Haynes' hands come into view. They are pinned behind his back and appear limp.
Some of the bouncers get up. Others appear to be checking or adjusting the handcuffs. Eventually, all of the bouncers stand, leaving Haynes lying facedown and motionless on the floor.
The bar's head of security, who took the camera from another staffer after the fight began and continued taping, told police that she thought Haynes was handcuffed for about one minute before anyone realized something was wrong. She estimated it was another four or five minutes before CPR was started.
The tape shows that between one and two minutes pass from when Haynes is no longer visibly struggling with the bouncers. He lies on the floor motionless for nearly one minute as they move back from him and stand.
The tape ends with one of the bouncers standing over Haynes, apparently saying something to him.
What happened next is described in interviews with police and investigators' summaries. The exact sequence of the events is difficult to determine from police reports.
Someone asked whether Gerald had lost consciousness. Bar employees checked on him and attempted to wake him with smelling salts. They rolled him onto his back. One bouncer told police he thought Gerald was winded "just like us." The man said if he had known something was wrong, "I wouldn't have left him."
The man said he noticed Gerald didn't appear to be breathing and checked for a pulse.
"When I didn't feel a pulse, ... I noticed he was starting to turn blue, " he said. He told the security chief to call 911. Someone took Haynes' handcuffs off.
Chris started screaming that his brother had asthma. He yelled out numbers for his grandmother, who might know more about his medical history.
The bartender who performed CPR -- an off-duty firefighter with EMT training who had been in another part of the bar -- told police that Gerald had no pulse when he got to him. He did not know how long Haynes had been down. "It was so chaotic over there that it was kind of hard to establish how long before they realized, " he told investigators. "I think as soon as they realized that he was not breathing, they came and got me."
The firefighter told police that a lot of people had gathered to see the fight. "And then, of course, the CPR started (and) all of a sudden it's not fun anymore, " he said, and the crowd dispersed.
The bartender and another bar employee did CPR for three to five minutes, until an ambulance arrived and rushed Haynes to Alaska Regional Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 3:28 a.m. Police reports say he had two black eyes; an abrasion on his forehead; a scrape below his ear; bruises on his back, neck and arm; and a mark on his wrist from his handcuffs.
OWNER DEFENDS STAFF
Chilkoot Charlie's, a Spenard institution for more than 25 years, had never before had a patron die after struggling with bouncers, according to owner Mike Gordon. The bar prides itself on the fact that it has a manual for security workers that was developed over decades -- apparently more than many nightclubs have.
Gordon declined to discuss the tape in detail. He said on the whole he believes it shows "professionalism and restraint" among his staff and proves police and prosecutors came to the right conclusion.
"And I think without the tape, there would have been prosecution, " Gordon said.
The Haynes family attorney, Lambert, also declined to discuss the tape or the incident in detail. But he suggested the bar's security staff triggered the melee by grabbing Gerald Haynes at the door of the bar. "The bouncers didn't need to pull him into the bar with a chokehold. They could have pushed him out of the bar."
Gordon said that none of his security workers have quit or been fired over the incident but that the bar is reviewing its security procedures in light of Haynes' death.
"There's always room for improvement, and that's where we're heading, " he said. "We want to make sure an incident like that never happens again."
Gordon said he has hired the San Diego-based Nightclub Security Consultants to help with the review.
"It's probably a good idea that security staffers in bars be trained in how to use handcuffs and different things they might have to employ, " Gordon said. "I think some improvements and some standards will come out of this whole thing."
Robert Smith, president of the company, has reviewed the Haynes tape, and he spent about a week at Chilkoot's interviewing staff members and watching them work.
Smith said he could not speak specifically to what he saw on the tape, because of the possible civil litigation ahead. "As a 13-year veteran police officer, I have seen that exact type of tragedy in several police departments across the country, including my own. There are lessons to be learned."
Smith, who said he has consulted for about 80 bars around the country and trained more than 3,000 bouncers, said he is updating Koot's operations manual and, with Gordon's help, plans to talk to other businesses in town about developing training guidelines for bouncers at an upcoming industry meeting.
"There's a need for standardized training, " he said, in Anchorage and elsewhere.