2 die in stampede at N.Y. concert
Fears of gunfire cause panicked crowd after show by GloRilla
The death toll rose to two Monday after a stampede at a rap concert in Rochester, N.Y., that authorities said may have been triggered by unfounded fears of gunfire.
Memphis rap stars GloRilla and Finesse2tymes had finished performing Sunday night at Rochester’s Main Street Armory when people exiting just after 11 p.m. began to surge dangerously, police Chief David M. Smith said at a news briefing Monday.
“We do not have any evidence of gunshots being fired or of anyone being shot or stabbed at the scene,” Smith said.
Concertgoer Ikea Hayes returned to the venue Monday to retrieve belongings she left behind.
“I was watching my life flash before my eyes, and I still didn’t even know what was going on,” she told Rochester television station WHEC. She described being “on the ground, just scared, praying, like, you got to get up, you got to move.”
Police found three badly injured women in the auditorium. One, identified as Rhondesia Belton, 33, of Buffalo died at a hospital. Belton worked for Buffalo’s Traffic Violations Agency, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown tweeted Monday evening.
“Her family, friends and colleagues are devastated and left to mourn this tragic loss,” Brown said. “Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.”
Rochester police announced the death of a 35-year-old woman late Monday. Her name was not released. Another woman remained in critical condition, police said. Seven other people were treated at area hospitals for injuries that were not life-threatening.
Security guard Anthony Rouse told WHEC that he signed up to work when he learned his daughter was going to the concert. She was hurt in the rush to the exits and spent part of Monday in the hospital, he said.
“The whole reason I signed on was to protect her,” he said. “And I failed.”
Rouse said he was near the stage when his daughter fell near the entrance of the crowded hall.
While there is no evidence of gunfire, Smith said, police are investigating several possible causes of the fatal surge, including “possibly crowd size, shots fired, pepper spray and other contributing factors.”
Mayor Malik Evans called the fatal stampede “totally unacceptable” and promised a thorough investigation into whether venue operators had the necessary safety measures in place for a large crowd.
“We are going to hold people accountable for what happened last night, period,” Evans said, though he cautioned that it was too early in the investigation to assign blame. “I intend to get to the bottom of this.”
There was no immediate response to emails requesting comment sent Monday to the Main Street Armory.
GloRilla, whose 2022 song “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” with Hitkidd was nominated for a Grammy for best rap performance, tweeted that she was “praying everybody is ok.”
Built from 1905 to 1907 and initially used by the U.S. Army, the armory hosted sporting events throughout the 20th century before being shut down for several years starting in the late 1990s, partly because it lacked a fire-suppression system at the time.
It reopened after extensive renovations and began hosting concerts and other events in 2005. Smith said its main arena is meant to have a capacity of about 5,000 people, and the city fire marshal will work with police to determine whether that capacity was exceeded Sunday.