A national cheerleading competition resumed Sunday, a day after 10 people were injured in a chaotic evacuation sparked by fears of an active shooter at a Dallas convention center.
The panic erupted just after 2:30 p.m. Saturday when the Dallas Police Department said it was “investigating an incident” at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center, where the National Cheerleaders Association All-Star Championships were being held.
They told people to avoid the area, and set up a family reunification center, evacuating the building and shutting down the competition for the day.
Thousands of spooked participants scrambled for the exits, and 10 were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that “ranged in severity from bumps and bruises to extremity fractures,” including a broken leg, Dallas Fire-Rescue told KXAS-TV. More than 58,000 people — including 30,410 athletes and 3,700 coaches — were in the convention center, according to CBS News.
Adults and youngsters alike described a terrifying, chaotic scene.
“As we were walking through, all of a sudden you heard somebody scream bloody murder, and before you knew it, people were just running in panic and trampling over each other and just trying to find a place of safety,” cheerleader parent Erika Castaneda told KXAS.
“Crying, screaming, police officers everywhere,” 14-year-old Autumn Holub told KDFW-TV. “The sirens were terrifying.”
Police later explained “a fight between two people led to multiple poles being knocked down, which caused a loud noise,” leading people to think there had been a shooting.
“This noise contributed to panic inside the building, prompting people to rush outside in a stampede,” police said. “There were multiple non-life-threatening injuries during the chaos. No shooting occurred.”
Varsity Brands, the company that puts on the competition, told KDFW on Saturday “the incident was triggered by an altercation between two attendees” and that “as a precaution, we suspended activities for today and will continue to work with event staff and local authorities to ensure a safe environment for our athletes to finish competing when we resume tomorrow.”
