Remainder of Salt Bowl canceled after fight at War Memorial Stadium spurs panic

The scene outside War Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2018.
The scene outside War Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2018.

The remainder of this year's Salt Bowl has been canceled after a panic sent fans running in different directions during the game’s third quarter Saturday night.

With a little more than nine minutes left to play in the quarter, fans started running to other sections of Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium, jumping over some partitions to do so.

In a tweet, the Little Rock Police Department said a fight broke out at the stadium, resulting in minor injuries. It was not immediately clear how many people were hurt.

Two people were seen taken out on stretchers. Their injuries did not appear serious.

“There has been no shooting incident,” the agency wrote.

Shane Broadway, one of the Salt Bowl's organizers, said officials will work to learn more about what happened.

"There were 38,215 fans enjoying a heck of a football game, a great tailgate party," he said. "We raised a record amount of peanut butter to help the people in our communities.

"I know that what happened tonight may overshadow some of that. But I wanted to say something on behalf of our committee and both of our school districts that a lot of good did happen here tonight. And we're going to get to the bottom of what did occur and what caused this incident. Because at the end of the day, whoever caused it needs to be brought to justice because kids lost tonight."

Announcements continued on repeat around 9:20 p.m. on the stadium’s loud speaker, urging people to stay in the stands.

A short time later, the stadium announcer said a decision had been made to cancel the game. Fans were then asked to leave.

An estimated 38,000 people were said to be in attendance at the Salt Bowl, an annual rivalry football game between Benton and Bryant. Many, however, had already made their way out of the stadium by the time the game was called off.

Audio by Mickey Doyle

Read Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

Information for this article was contributed by Mickey Doyle, Gavin Lesnick and Jillian Kremer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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