A fight at Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium during the Salt Bowl high school football game Saturday night set off a panic that sent fans running for the exits, ending the game early.
Little Rock police spokesman Steve Moore said no shots were fired, but a fight among teenagers during the third quarter knocked over a barricade, causing confusion when people attending the game mistook the sound for gunshots.
The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, which runs the stadium, plans to investigate. No one involved in the fight had been apprehended late Saturday, Moore said.
Moore said five people were hospitalized late Saturday for treatment of heat-related conditions and two people were treated for minor leg injuries, one from jumping over a wall and one from falling.
By 9:15 p.m., the public address announcer, after urging people to stay calm, implored fans to return to their seats to watch the teams finish playing. As he did so, hundreds of people continued leaving, some calmly and others in a panic.
The annual rivalry game between Benton and Bryant high schools drew a record 38,215 people, officials said.
After the melee, some people were in tears, while others ran to hug people they'd been separated from in the confusion. Some people called loved ones.
"Someone just yelled 'gun' and everyone started running," one woman said.
Some people heard that shots were fired or that there was a fight or a Taser incident, or all three. Some didn't know what was happening but fled anyway.
Chase Stone, 18, said he first saw people running toward a fight. Then they ran away, thinking shots were fired.
One football player used his arm to support a girl as she limped away from the stadium.
"I just took off running because everyone else was running," said Ethan Cottrell, 15, a Bryant sophomore.
Ethan spotted his friend P.J., whose parents had just found him in the confusion.
P.J.'s parents, Pete and JoAnn Hollingsworth, said they were worried because they did not know where their son was, but they found him once people stopped running.
Shane Broadway, Salt Bowl committee spokesman, thanked the law enforcement agencies at the scene, including Pulaski County sheriff's deputies and police officers from Little Rock, Benton and Bryant. He also thanked the staff members and park rangers at the stadium.
"We don't want the incident that occurred tonight to overshadow the good that happened here tonight," he said.
"At the end of the day, whoever caused it needs to be brought to justice, because kids lost tonight, because they worked their butts off all summer long to play a football game that means a lot to these communities," Broadway said.
Information for this article was contributed by Emily Walkenhorst and Mickey Doyle of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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