One person was killed and nine people were injured during a crowd crush at a GloRilla concert in Rochester, New York on March 5.
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The Rochester Police Department initially responded to a false report of shots fired inside the Main Street Armory, where GloRilla was performing with Finesse2Tymes. Instead, police found the aftermath of a tragic crowd rush, which left nine people injured and one dead.
Among the injured were three women with critical injuries, one who later died at the hospital. Police have not released the name of the 33-year-old woman who succumbed to her injuries.
“The injuries appear to be as a result of a large crowd pushing towards the exits following accounts of individuals hearing what they believed to be gunshots,” Nicholas Adams, a lieutenant with the Rochester Police Department told CNN.
During a briefing on March 6, police chief David M. Smith said, “We do not have any evidence of gunshots being fired or anyone being shot or stabbed at the scene. What began last night as a night of live music and fun for the performer GloRilla ended in tragedy with one person dead and two more fighting for their lives.”
“I’m just now hearing about what happened wtf,” tweeted Glorilla in the early morning of March 6. “Praying everybody is ok.”
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans called the fatal stampede “a tragedy of epic proportions” and said there would be a thorough investigation. “We are going to hold people accountable for what happened last night, period,” said Evans. Police are investigating several causes of the fatal stampede, including “crowd size, shots fired, pepper spray, and other contributing factors.”
Fatal crowd surges have been a recurring catastrophe at concerts and large gatherings over the past several years. Glorilla’s concert follows the recent tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas on Nov. 5, 2021, which resulted in the deaths of 10 people and hundreds injured after a massive crowd surge of 50,000 pushing forward, crushing concertgoers in its path.
In 2022, 158 people were killed by a crush of people during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea.
Photo by Terence Rushin/Getty Images
