Arkansas football game fight incites stadium evacuation
By admin - 2019-01-25 00:40:51

On Saturday, 38,000 fans were evacuated from War Memorial Stadium’s annual high school Salt Bowl football game as attendants mistook the sound of a fallen barricade as gunshots.

Incredible video from the football stadium was posted on Twitter, showing families and students yelling and sprinting towards the exits.

Shortly after the incident, Little Rock Police officers arrived on the scene and later confirmed that no gunshots were fired.

‘There has been no shooting incident at War Memorial Stadium. There was a fight that caused minor injuries. LRPD is on the scene handling this incident,’ officials announced on social media.

Police and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism later released a statement saying that the people behind the altercation remain unknown, and it’s not clear if their confrontation was just verbal or became physical.

They added a stun gun was deployed and ‘dry fired’, meaning shot without ammunition, by a person attending the game, leading the crowd to believe it was a gunshot that was fired.

Then news of ‘gun’ passed through the stadium verbally, through social media, and text messages.

When a second ‘dry fire’ of the stun gun was fired, people began to flee on the west side of the stadium, where fans from Bryant high school were sitting.

A teenage girl was later arrested outside of the stadium and charged as a juvenile with disorderly conduct, according to Officer Steve Moore.

She allegedly became unruly following the chaos inside the stadium and was uncooperative with officers, according to THV11.

Salt Bowl committee member Shane Broadway said he’s devastated with the incident that ended the annual game.

‘Whoever caused it needs to be brought to justice. Kids lost tonight, kids who worked their butts off all summer long to play in a football game that means a lot to both of these communities,’ he said.

The group of individuals involved in the altercation was able to leave without being identified. An investigation is still underway.