The Eagle Tribune reports that a large crowd of patrons and bystanders interfered with rescue workers as they tried to tend to a shooting victim at the Marabu nightclub on Union Street.
Eric Santiago, 28, who gave an address of 2 Appleton St., Apt. 7, — which happens to be the address of Lawrence District Court — was shot once in the side and once in the neck, according to police reports.
Investigators will be filing a request for a hearing before the city’s Licensing Board to discuss problems at the club. On June 8, the Licensing Board revoked the club’s liquor license for a five-day period. The suspension stemmed from a May 9 incident during which four men allegedly blocked traffic as the bar was closing and then skirmished with police who asked them to move on.
On May 25, the board ordered the bar closed June 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11 after finding a deck had been built outside the club without approval from the Building Department or the Licensing Board and ignored three orders by police to close it.
Police recently responded to a report of a shooting in or near the men’s room of the Marabu. Upon arrival, they found that the victim had been carried outside by some friends who said they were going to take him to the hospital in their own car.
However, before he could be taken away, EMTs and paramedics from the Lawrence Fire Department and Patriot Ambulance began working on the victim outside the nightclub.
“Bystanders were attempting to grab items within the crime scene, interfere with EMTs and paramedics,” according to a report by Patrolman Carlos Vieira.
Vieira said that a number of people were yelling at police, saying they were “doing nothing” as they tried to secure the scene and interview witnesses.
More than a dozen officers from the early night shift and the midnight shift responded, mostly to help with crowd control.
The Eagle Trib reports that Police Chief John Romero said detectives are investigating what, if any, role the management of the club had in the incident and in carrying the victim outside to his friends’ car.
Santiago was taken to Lawrence General Hospital where he was stabilized before being flown to Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital in Boston at around 2 a.m. He was not listed as being a patient at the hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman, so his condition was unavailable yesterday. Romero said he was in “pretty rough shape” and had undergone surgery during the day yesterday.
