Active shooter rumor causes panic, stampede at Barclays Center
(NewsNation) — Rumor of an active shooter at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center late Saturday night sent boxing fans into a panicked frenzy, injuring 18 people in a stampede and sending nine patients to a local hospital, a New York Fire Department spokesperson confirmed to NewsNation.
After an investigation into the incident, the New York Police Department determined there were no shots fired. At this time, injuries appear to be strictly from panic in the crowd.
The crowd mistook a loud sound disturbance, sending the crowd running for their lives.
The crowd of fans where there to watch the fight between Gervonta Davis and Rolando Romero, according to PIX11.
People pushed and shoved each other. Some people were trampled.
Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka was among those in the crowd who experienced the chaos. Osaka tweeted, “I was just in the Barclays Center and suddenly I heard shouting and saw people running, then we were being yelled at that there was an active shooter and we had to huddle in a room and close the doors.”
Petrified from the incident, Osaka updated her twitter saying she made it out OK and hoped everyone else was OK.
This incident occurred less than a week after an active shooter took the lives of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and just over two weeks after another mass shooting killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.