Bouncer killed 'over New York smoking ban'

New York City's controversial new ban on smoking in bars and restaurants suffered the worst imaginable public relations setback yesterday after a bouncer in an East Village nightspot who told a customer to put out his cigarette was stabbed to death.

Dana Blake, a 6ft 5in bear of a man known to his colleagues as Shazam, was stabbed in the stomach early on Sunday as he sought to eject two Chinese American brothers who had started a fight with him over the cigarette issue. He bled to death 11 hours later.

The brothers, Jonathan and Ching Chan, were arrested and immediately charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and resisting arrest. At least one was also expected to face murder charges, although police said they had not yet determined which of them was responsible.

The victim's brother, Tony Blake, told reporters: "I'm very bitter. It's a senseless murder because of this stupid cigarette law. That's the reason this guy was killed."

City authorities tried to play down the cigarette angle. "The smoking issue was the initial contact," police spokesman Michael O'Looney said. "The homicide seems to be more over the issue of the ejection from the bar."

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former smoker who is now an energetic champion of the smoking ban, refused to comment on any link between the new law and the crime.

"The Mayor is satisfied that the police quickly apprehended the two men responsible for this senseless death, and his thoughts are with the family of the victim," the spokesman, Edward Skyler, said.

Police and witnesses said the Chan brothers were drinking rum and Coke at the bar of the Guernica club on Avenue B at about 2.30 on Sunday morning when Mr Blake approached them and said they were not allowed to smoke. It is not clear whether one or both of them had a lighted cigarette at the time.

Words were exchanged, and a scuffle broke out. Mr Blake grabbed Jonathan Chan by the neck and tried to throw him out. His brother fought back, as did a couple who appeared to be friends of the Chans.

Mr Blake was stabbed apparently as they came to the foot of stairs leading to the exit of the club. Hip-hop music was thumping through the club's sound system and witnesses struggled to make out what was going on.

Tony Blake, a preacher who spends much of his time railing against the evils of alcohol and tobacco, said attempts to try to change the nature of late-night bars were futile. "If you go to Sodom and Gomorrah, you're going to find people smoking there," he said. "This is what bars are."

Others worry that bars and nightclubs are losing business because of the smoking ban, which came into effect on 1 April. The law, which imposes $200 (£127) fines on first-time offenders, was designed to protect workers in the city's 13,000 bars and restaurants.

California has had a public smoking ban for years but the New Yorkers see it as a particular assault on the character of their city.