Nightclubs

Los Angeles police Thursday night arrested a Sylmar man they said fired into a crowd outside a popular nightclub, killing a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman. Jose Casas, 21, was arrested at his house after he was identified by witnesses to the shooting, Detective Frank Bishop said.

More than 200 people affected by a devastating nightclub fire in Providence sued the state, club owners and a host of other defendants, alleging that their carelessness and negligence were to blame for 100 deaths and dozens of injuries. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 146 survivors and the family members of 80 people who died, the largest group of plaintiffs yet to sue over the 2003 blaze at The Station nightclub in West Warwick. The suit seeks monetary damages but does not specify an

A popular Hollywood nightclub has agreed to end its "skirt night" and all other promotions designed to let women in for free as part of an out-of-court settlement of a sex discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed by two men and a woman who said it was unfair and illegal to allow women in skirts into the Florentine Gardens nightclub for free on certain nights while forcing men and women without skirts to pay a cover charge.

A 17-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man were shot and wounded after an argument at a nightclub early Saturday, authorities said. The shooting was reported at 12:45 a.m. at a gas station parking lot in the 100 block of East Avenue J, about a block from the El Dorado nightclub, said Sheriff's Sgt. John Perez. The unidentified victims drove themselves to the emergency room at Antelope Valley Hospital. Investigators think an argument preceded the shooting, Perez said.

Planners have unanimously approved a new nightclub in the Marketplace shopping center across from UC Irvine that will have a restaurant, sushi bar, pool tables, and a bar featuring live music and a dance floor. The Planning Commission last week unanimously approved the 11,000-square-foot FX Club with the requirement that owners provide free valet parking to ward off a parking crunch during peak times at the Marketplace.

Two people were in critical condition Wednesday following a shooting at a nightclub, Los Angeles police said. A man and a woman were wounded after a fight that started about midnight Tuesday when one man stepped on another man's shoes at the Deuce Nightclub in the 11900 block of South Central Avenue, said Officer Charlotte Broughton. "The suspect stepped on the shoes of a man who was wearing red shoes and a red cap," she said. The man was asked to leave, Broughton said.

Police said today that a gunman was holding possibly as many as 100 people hostage in a London nightclub, and a witness who escaped said he believes members of the Kuwaiti royal family were among them. Ambulance officers who drove to the scene to await developments said they had no reports of anyone being hurt. Armed police also were outside the building housing Tokyo Joe's, a club popular in London's Middle Eastern community and located off Piccadilly.

Three security guards were shot and seriously wounded outside a nightclub early Saturday, police said. They were closing Leonardo's club in the 1700 block of West Manchester Avenue about 2 a.m. when a group of men opened fire on them, said Kevin Maiberger, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. The assailants apparently were among some patrons the security guards had kicked out earlier for being disruptive.

Two young people were wounded early Thursday outside an Anaheim nightclub for teen-agers when a gunman randomly sprayed at least seven shots from a pistol into a crowd of about 300 milling around the parking lot. Most in the crowd hit the ground outside Zzapp's, which had just closed, or ran inside the nightclub to escape the gunfire that erupted shortly after 1 a.m. But a 15-year-old Anaheim girl and a 17-year-old Signal Hill youth were wounded....

Police on Friday were seeking a man who shot another man to death during an argument outside a nightclub. The victim, Willie Curtis Ford, 26, of Bellflower, was apparently trying to help a woman who was trading barbs with another man at Mr. J's nightclub at 2100 E. Edinger Ave., Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said. According to witnesses, the woman and man were arguing just as patrons were trickling out of the nightclub at 1:40 a.m., Helton said.