Sixteen people were injured at the Barclays Center in New York City on Sunday morning after false reports of an active shooter spread through the crowd at a boxing match.
A stampede occurred around 1:05 a.m. as the Gervonta Davis-Rolando Romero boxing match was wrapping up, according to a New York City Police Department (NYPD) spokesperson.
The spokesperson said there were shouts about a shot fired, with the crowd “attempting to flee everywhere.”
After the frenzy, seven people were transported to local hospitals, and the remaining nine injured were treated on-site by medical staff, the NYPD said. The entire event unfolded over just a few minutes, lasting until police confirmed there was no active shooter. It’s unclear what exactly prompted the report of an active shooter.
The incident comes after a mass shooting this week in Texas, where a gunman shot and killed 19 children and two adults in the deadliest school shooting in almost a decade. It also comes after a mass shooter opened fire inside a grocery store, killing 10 people in Buffalo, N.Y., earlier this month.
Tennis star Naomi Osaka was among those at the Barclays Center on Sunday. She tweeted that she suddenly “heard shouting and saw people running, then we were being yelled at that there was an active shooter and we had to huddle in a room and close the doors.”
“I really hope everyone made it out safely, since I’m tweeting this we made it out ok,” she wrote around 1:53 a.m. on Sunday.