Police have raided the home of one of the two stonewalling brothers who own the Rhode Island club where an inferno touched off by a band’s pyrotechnics killed 97 people.
Michael and Jeffrey Derderian are not cooperating with the investigation into the Thursday night blaze at The Station in West Warwick, which also injured nearly 200 people, said Patrick Lynch, the state’s attorney general.
“Michael Derderian did not respond to our questions and Jeff Derderian has not responded to our questions since speaking with our office in the early hours Friday,” said Lynch.
“Other evidence has been gathered. Other people have spoken. When that happens, sometimes you need to revisit people to ask questions.
“I believe the Derderians might be able to provide some answers that may assist all of us.”
Sunday, authorities ratcheted up the pressure on Michael Derderian by raiding his Narragansett home.
Douglas Champlain, who lives across the street, saw two State Police cruisers and a crime-scene truck. They stayed for about two hours.
“I did not see if they took anything out of the house,” Champlain said.
Meanwhile, authorities have subpoenaed surviving members of the band Great White, the Boston Herald reported. This typically indicates that a grand jury has been convened.
The attorney general has promised criminal charges, but has not said against whom they would be filed.
Also yesterday, Great White’s lawyer charged that Jeffrey Derderian, who also works as a TV reporter in Providence, was present when the heavy-metal band set up on stage.
The lawyer, Ed McPherson, added that Michael Derderian gave Great White permission to use fireworks during its performance at the club about a week before the disaster.
“We don’t want to point fingers, but I think that it’s very important to assist the investigators in this case … to be candid, to be truthful, and that’s exactly what the band is trying to be,” McPherson told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
But Jeffrey Derderian has insisted that no one associated with Great White had asked the club about using pyrotechnics.
Great White guitarist Ty Longley was among those who died.
The band has claimed it asks for permission where it uses pyrotechnics, but a number of other clubs say they only learned of the Great White fireworks show after the fact.
The band’s written “performance rider” does not mention pyrotechnics, according to a copy obtained by CourtTV’s The Smoking Gun Web site.