By Brendan O’Brien
(Reuters) – Police were on Monday trying to determine what caused a stampede at a hip hop concert in New York state that killed one woman and injured nine others – with the size of the crowd, and reports that shots were heard at the venue, two lines of inquiry.
Concertgoers were leaving the show, featuring rappers GloRilla and Finesse2tymes, at the Main Street Armory in Rochester at just after 11 p.m. when the crowd began to surge, city Police Chief David Smith told a news conference on Monday.
“There are some reports that shots were heard, causing the crowd to panic,” he said, however adding that police had found no evidence to support that theory.
Police located three badly injured females inside the building, one of whom later died in hospital. The other two were in critical condition, and seven other people were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, Smith said.
Preliminary reports from the scene indicated the injuries were caused by people being trampled.
“We do not have any evidence of gunshots being fired or anyone being shot or stabbed at the scene,” Smith added. “We are hearing many reports of potential causes including possible crowd size.”
The Main Street Armory is a popular local entertainment venue that holds 5,000 people.
“We are going to hold people accountable for what happened last night, period,” Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said.
“I’m just now hearing about what happened … praying everybody is ok,” GlorRilla wrote in a Twitter post late on Sunday.
Sixteen months ago, 10 people died in a stampede at a concert by rapper Travis Scott at Houston’s Astroworld Festival.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; editing by Paul Thomasch)