Birmingham City Council to review nightclub licence following fatal stabbing
The review of Crane's licence will be heard this morning.
Licensing bosses at Birmingham City Council will meet today (Friday) to consider whether Crane nightclub in Digbeth should have its licence suspended following the murder of Cody Fisher.
The 23-year-old was stabbed to death on the dancefloor of the venue while on a night out with friends on Boxing Day.
West Midlands Police said they applied for an urgent review of Crane's licence over "serious management failings".
The licensing committee will also examine whether the club should be stripped of its permission to sell alcohol, and if the premises supervisor should be removed.
West Midland Police's application for the review said Mr Fisher died during "a fight on the dancefloor" and officers who attended "described a scene of chaos and evidence of drug use within the premises".
One sergeant's account said the club's security guards asked officers to help them with crowd control following the stabbing, while other "oblivious" staff members were "wandering around all over the place" and began cleaning up the crime scene.
"They have started to clean the dancefloor further down from where the deceased was; officers shouted at them to stop," the sergeant said.
"While officers are doing CPR, you can see people are just wandering around in the scene freely. As soon as we had more officers on the scene they were removed and the whole dancefloor was cordoned off and the area was made sterile...
"There were hundreds of small drugs bags and nitrous oxide cannisters all over the dancefloor. These include the small and the very large nitrous oxide cannisters with balloons."
Licensing officers will ask for immediate measures to be implemented to ensure public safety, and a planned event on New Year's Eve has been cancelled by the venue.
Responding to a review of its licence on Thursday, a spokesperson for Crane added: "An expedited review of a premises licence is normal whenever any serious crime takes place at a licensed premises, and we are cooperating fully.
"We place the highest priority on all aspects of public safety and security.
"Whilst it would be wrong for us at this stage to react to individual, anecdotal accounts of the circumstances that applied on Boxing Day, we do employ extensive and professional security procedures for all public events, and our contracted security staff are professionals who are licensed by the SIA.
"But we will of course be conducting a full and detailed review in light of this week's tragedy, as well as assisting fully with the ongoing police enquiry."
A third man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Mr Fisher.
The force said the latest suspect was arrested in London at around 3am on Thursday.
He is the third person to be arrested on suspicion of murder, while four others have been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Police recovered a knife from the crime scene, and a post-mortem examination has confirmed that Mr Fisher died of a stab wound.