Two stabbed at Icon despite police

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The altercation happened at around 1:30 a.m. as the Icon Nightclub was about to close. The victims were a 27-year-old from Mitchellville and a 28-year-old from Washington, D.C., police reported.

"It is clear an altercation occurred that may have started inside the club and spilled outside," said Diane Richardson, police spokeswoman. But Richardson said it isn't apparent how large the fight was or how it started.

Acquaintances of the victims drove them to Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, and hospital workers called police at 2:24 a.m. Sheriff's officers went to the club and have conducted interviews, but haven't made any arrests in the incident, according to Richardson.

The victims have been transferred to another hospital, where they were admitted with serious injuries, police reported.

Several off-duty sheriff's officers were working secondary employment in the Icon parking lot at the time of the stabbing, but none of them saw the assault, Richardson stated.

A club manager said that the friends of the victims drove them away quickly and that Icon workers didn't know about the stabbing until the hospital called police.

"It happened really fast," said the manager, Carla Hunter. She confirmed that the club was about to close when the fight began and said she wasn't sure how many people were involved in the altercation.

"We try our best to make sure everybody's safe who comes here. We don't allow purses inside, and everybody is searched. … We do everything in our power, but there are always a few rotten apples," she said.

A Washington, D.C. man was shot to death in Clinton at the end of November 2008 after having been at the nightclub earlier that night.

In a recent letter to the Independent, the Icon's owner, Ola "Foot" Olasehinde, referred to possible safety concerns surrounding his November request at a county liquor board meeting to let the club stay open an extra hour on Friday and Saturday nights.

"If safety is a matter of concern, I have hired off-duty Charles County sheriff's officers who patrol the parking lots and provide an atmosphere of cooperation. Their mere presence is enough that I'm sure troublemakers know to go somewhere else for the evening. I have made safety a priority at the Icon …" wrote Olasehinde.

Detectives are in the process of trying to locate witnesses and ask anyone with additional information to call the major crime unit at 301-609-6496.

brodgers@somdnews.com