City officials, Red, White and BOOM! goers respond to incidents of crowd panic
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Hard work, planning and lots of time went into making sure safety plans were solid for Red, White & Boom! which took place all day on Monday.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and some city councilmembers say it was another safe event and they’re proud of the first responders' work. They say it’s an example of how the city can come together and celebrate.
"I was down at Boom! with my family and we had a great time. It shows that we can come together as a city and enjoy family fun fireworks and celebrate the Fourth of July," said Columbus city council president Shannon Hardin.
As fireworks were going off, NBC4 cameras caught panic and confusion as many ran from a loud popping sound.
Raw video of moments of panic at Red, White and BOOM! can be seen in the player below.
"We had a little disturbance but as I talked about with the chief last night, there was no actual gun-shooting or those things that can scare a big crowd," Hardin said.
It happened earlier Monday too, but in each of these cases, police said there were no shots fired.
"We were down there talking with the chief several times over the course of the night. It was safe overall; everybody had a great time. A few kids were going around, you know, pushing into people, but overall our men and women of the division did great," said Columbus City Council member Emmanuel Remy.
In a tweet posted Tuesday afternoon, Columbus police said the they believe a group of people in the crowd made false statements several times.
"Statements circulating on social media claiming shootings took place in & around downtown during @rwandBOOM are false," the post read. "It is believed a small group of individuals made false statements in the crowd multiple times throughout the night, causing people to run from the event."
Police confirmed that nothing happened, but for some in the crowd, it was a scare.
"My wife is a teacher and she reminded us that from the time that they're in kindergarten, they learned to run and so you know, it's just one of those reactions group mentality, they took off running," Remy said.
"Obviously concerned any time, folks are doing anything to make folks concerned especially many folks are already a little hesitant to be in large groups after the last couple of years and incidents all over the world," Ginther said.
Hardin says the safety people saw at Red, White & Boom! came down to lots of planning.
"Unfortunately, we had that small, short period of fear and I get that in this environment that we live in. But all in all, it was a very safe event and folks had a good time," Hardin said.