Boy Dies After Violence Erupts at Underground Dance Party

A so-called party-crew dance turned ugly early Sunday when a 16-year-old boy was stabbed several times during a fight and later died.

Such underground dance parties--this one was being held illegally inside a warehouse in the 200 block of North E Street in Anaheim--have been occurring with increasing frequency in the city for the past year, according to police. The dances are organized at changing locations by party crews, who publicize the event through flyers and provide beer and music in exchange for an admission fee.

Authorities did not release the name of the victim, who was stabbed repeatedly in the upper torso. He was taken about 12:30 a.m. to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he was pronounced dead, Police Sgt. Thomas Lahmon said.

Homicide detectives on Sunday were interviewing witnesses to the stabbing and looking for suspects, Lahmon said. No arrests had been made. Police did not know how many young people attended the party.

An Anaheim police investigator said Sunday that the underground dances, which attract hundreds of party-goers, are a disturbing new trend among teen-agers. It has only recently made its way to Orange County, though such parties have been a Los Angeles County phenomenon for some time.

Typically, the parties are held in different locations each weekend to evade police, and often the property owner is unaware that his or her building is to be the site of a dance.

Police said they did not know if the Anaheim warehouse owner knew about the party in advance. The police investigator said that party crews frequently gain access to party sites either without permission of the owner or by making an illicit arrangement with an employee.

The party-crew dances are usually advertised by flyers circulated at local schools.

“It’s very common for the flyers to go around at school,” the investigator said. “Because they don’t want the police to know, they’ll just give a phone number. When you call the number, you are given directions or told where to pick up a map. That’s how they weed out the undesirables, and keep away the cops.”

The party crews include youths who like to invent new dance steps. They take their “techno-dance music” or “hip-hop” to roving dance parties throughout a city and usually come up with hip-sounding names for themselves.

“The problem is, you see a lot of hard-core gang members and (graffiti) tagger crews at these parties so the potential for violence is always there,” the investigator said. “What happened last night demonstrates that.”

At most parties, the music is played by deejays who operate out of the back of a truck in order to make a quick escape or move the party to a second location if police arrive.

“In most cases, a second location has already been determined,” the investigator said. “They are set up to be mobile and ready to move at any time.”

Although the parties are most often held at night, they sometimes occur during school hours and these daytime parties are also known as “ditch parties,” the investigator said.

The parties are part of a burgeoning underground phenomenon in Southern California that includes all-night parties called “raves,” where nitrous oxide--laughing gas--is often peddled in $5 balloons.

In March, 1992, three men were found dead in a pickup truck in Chatsworth after they overdosed on laughing gas. Inside of the truck were flyers for underground parties.