False Gun Report Causes Stampede & Several Injuries At D.C. Pride Parade [VIDEO]

Capital Pride, held in D.C., was tarnished by noises mistaken for gunshots, creating chaos and resulting in several injured parade-goers.

According to Commander Guillermo Rivera, Metropolitan Police were responding to a call of a man with a gun. Upon further investigation, they found that the gun-wielding man was in possession of a BB gun instead of a real gun.

Still with rumors swirling and four loud pops, that was enough to send people into a frenzy, running and ducking for cover. Video footage posted to Twitter shows the panic that followed the noise.

I was here and am extremely shook. The fact that everyone at #DCPride was already conditioned to be victim to a mass shooting at any moment is exactly why America needs stricter gun laws. We can’t live like this pic.twitter.com/4pWj5IbwX1

— Trey (@treyrhawkins) June 9, 2019

While law enforcement officials claim to have found no evidence of a real gun, footage from the parade is currently under review to figure out where the noise came from.

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With the rise of mass shootings and heightening violence against marginalized groups, false alarms are on the rise as well, presenting themselves at music festivals and other public gatherings. Activists have taken to Twitter to address the consequences of false alarms like these.

Responses minimizing people being terrified at #dcpride show how little we understand about #trauma. Almost every LGBTQ person I know has had some experience of abuse or violence due to being LGBTQ. 3 years after Pulse we hear “gun” and we don’t wait to hear it was a false alarm.

— Emily C. Heath (@emilycheath) June 9, 2019

I’m really happy there’s not an active shooter, but this is a jumping off point for a sad conversation about how we’re so collectively pre-traumatized re: gathering in public spaces. We’ve been primed to expect a shooter. Of course they ran for their lives. #DCPride https://t.co/GlVP9edo1A

— Nikki Davis (@halliwax) June 9, 2019

Looks like the shooting scare at #DCPride may have been a false alarm. Thank goodness. But, here’s the thing: Only in America would everyone at such an event plausibly think that they were abt 2B victims of yet another mass shooting. We are now conditioned to that as 1st thought

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) June 9, 2019