Concert surge kills 2, hurts 8 in Rochester
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Two women are dead and another was critically injured when a large crowd surged late Sunday following a concert at the Main Street Armory in Rochester.
Three women were taken by ambulance to Strong Memorial Hospital, where one of the three – 33-year-old Rhondesia Belton of Buffalo – was pronounced dead, according to Rochester police.
On Monday, another woman, whom police did not identify, died. Earlier in the day, police had said that two 35year-old women, one from Syracuse and the other from Rochester, were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
Seven additional concert-goers were dropped off by private vehicles at area hospitals with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, but were related to the same incident, police said.
Just after 11 p.m. Sunday, after a concert featuring musicians GloRilla and Finesse2Tymes ended, concert-goers were leaving the venue when the crowd started to surge and rush toward the exit, said Rochester Police Chief David Smith. There were reports of individuals hearing what they believed to be gunshots inside the venue, at 900 E. Main St., “causing the crowd to panic,” he said.
Smith said there was no evidence that anyone fired a gun inside the venue, or that anyone at the venue was shot or stabbed. The injuries, Smith said, “were caused from being trampled.”
Police, along with other city departments including the fire marshal, Code Enforcement Office and Rochester’s corporate counsel, are investigating the fatal stampede and interviewing concert-goers, injured victims and security, among others. Police are looking into numerous contributing factors, including crowd size, shots fired and pepper spray.
Smith said the city is also working with the state Liquor Authority to verify compliance with regulatory safety measures.
The agencies, he said, will not only determine what happened, but also will “bring accountability to those who are culpable for last night’s tragedy,” Smith said.
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, who along with Smith was at the scene early Monday, said the situation both “breaks my heart and is totally unacceptable.”
“This is a tragedy of epic proportions,” Evans said at a news conference Monday. “It’s something that all of us who love concerts worry about...When you go to a concert you do not expect to be trampled. Your loved ones expect you to be able to come home and talk about the experience you had at that great concert.”
It was not immediately known how many people attended the concert. City officials confirmed that the building has a maximum capacity of 5,000 people.
The Main Street Armory’s next concert, scheduled for Saturday, was canceled.
GloRilla, a Memphis native 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.”