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Exotic dancers attacked on stage at nightclub on Indianapolis' west side, incident caught on video

Posted at 7:36 PM, Mar 02, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-03 10:43:57-05

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two exotic dancers are recovering after they say they were attacked and robbed at a club on Indianapolis' west side early Wednesday morning.

Jimmiesha Rankin and Shapree Bailey say they’ve been traveling from St. Louis to Indianapolis every week for the past few months to perform at Cherri Palace in the 3800 block of Lafayette Road.

The women were performing around 1 a.m. when they say security staff approached them and started beating them. Someone nearby captured part of the attack on video and posted it on Facebook.

The video shows a man body slamming Shapree and then punching her while she was on the ground.

“That’s just ridiculous. I mean, I got scratches and bumps,” said Shapree. “I don’t understand why all that force was even necessary.”

The women say they still don’t know why they were attacked. They filed a report with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department to try to get some answers. 

“Why would you do that to us? What is your reason? We really want justice. We really want to get to the bottom of everything,” said Jimmiesha.

Security footage from the club that night shows another fight broke out where a woman was repeatedly kicked while she was on the floor.

RTV6 reached out to the management of Cherri Palace for a response but they deferred all comments to Genesis Security LLC, the company behind the security detail Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, the women are headed back to St. Louis with none of their earnings. “As we were getting attacked the security guards were picking our money up,” said Jimmiesha. “A floor full of money and we didn’t get one dollar.”

Detectives say they are trying to find more video of what happened inside the club that night. So far no arrests have been made and no charges have been filed. 

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