Two women are dead and several others are injured after being trampled Sunday night following GloRilla’s concert at the Main Street Armory in Rochester, New York.
According to multiple reports, police Monday afternoon identified one woman killed by the stampede of concert-goers as Rhondesia Belton, 33, of Buffalo. The second woman who died was said to have been 35.
Just after 11:00 p.m. Sunday, concert-goers were leaving the venue following the show, which featured musicians GloRilla and Finesse2Tymes, when, per Rochester Police Chief David Smith, the crowd started to surge and rush toward the exit. There were reports of individuals hearing what they believed to be gunshots inside the venue, “causing the crowd to panic,” he said.
Smith said there was no evidence that anyone fired a gun inside the venue, or that anyone at the venue was shot or stabbed. The injuries, Smith said, “were caused from being trampled.”
The stampede is currently under investigation, with Police looking into numerous contributing factors including crowd size, shots fired, and pepper spray.
ET has reached out to both GloRilla and Finesse2Tymes’ reps for comment
GloRilla took to Twitter after finding out about the incident Sunday, tweeting, “I’m just now hearing about what happened wtf 😢😢😢praying everybody is ok 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼.”
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans also spoke out in a press conference Monday, saying the situation both “breaks my heart and is totally unacceptable.”
“This is a tragedy of epic proportions,” Evans continued. “It’s something that all of us who love concerts worry about…When you go to a concert you do not expect to be trampled. Your loved ones expect you to be able to come home and talk about the experience you had at that great concert.”
It was not immediately known how many people attended the concert. City officials did confirm, however, that the building has a maximum capacity of 5,000 people. Per city spokeswoman Barbara Pierce, “the facility is current and compliant with all fire codes,” with the fire marshal’s office most recently completing its annual inspection of the Armory in December.
The Main Street Armory’s next concert was scheduled for Saturday, March 11, but has since been canceled. Pierce said that city officials plan to meet with owner Scott Donaldson later this week to “discuss the path forward for the Main Street Armory as an entertainment venue.”