D.C. Nightclub Ordered Closed after Stabbing Death

Metropolitan Police Departmant Chief Cathy Lanier has ordered a northeast Washington nightclub to close after a 19-year-old man was fatally stabbed.

Eric Jones, 19, of Clinton, Maryland, was stabbed at Layla Lounge on Morse Street NE early Thursday morning. A Layla Lounge employee said he performed CPR on Jones and applied pressure to the wound until help arrived, but Jones died at a local hospital. 

There's no word on what preceded the stabbing. 

Lanier ordered the club to close its doors for 96 hours while police investigate the homicide. She said security guards broke up a fight twice but didn't tell police even though two D.C. officers were there, working an approved overtime shift.

Phillip Donkor, who works at the gas station behind the club, says the violence is too close for comfort.

"It can spill over, you know," Donkor said. "If it gets out of hand, it can come this way."

D.C. resident Wallace Kirby says the stabbing it just a part of a larger citywide problem. 

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"We're in a crisis here. It's not just one isolated incident. We got this spike in violence all throughout the city," Kirby said. 

Anyone with information that can help police is asked to call 202-727-9099. 

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