A stampede of frightened and panicked fans capped Saturday night boxing at Barclays Center.
Not long after crowd favorite Gervonta Davis knocked out Rolly Romero with a left counter, a rumor of gunshots sent exiting spectators into a frenzied dash from the concourse back inside the arena. An NYPD detective told ESPN that 10 people were sent to the hospital with minor injuries as a result of the melee, but he believed the rumor that a gun had been fired — which was echoed by spectators and members of Barclays Center staff at the time — was a false alarm.
Hundreds spilled back into the arena, running through the largely empty stands. Others, like tennis star Naomi Osaka, were apparently shuttled into a closed room.
“I was just in the Barclays center and suddenly I 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,” Osaka tweeted, “I was so f----ing petrified.”
Confusion added to the chaos. In the hallways of the event level by the TV trucks, an arena employee was telling people to stay put until he receive an update on his walkie talkie.
Two cops then sprinted around the corner. Arena announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. told his Showtime colleague Jim Gray, “the quicker we get out of here, the better.”
Tensions were building inside Barclays Center before the chaotic exit. A fight in the stands occurred in the first round of the main event between Davis and Romero. Another fan fight erupted after Davis won. The sold out crowd of nearly 19,000, which included Madonna and Michael Strahan, set the record for the highest-grossing boxing event in Barclays Center history.
They saw Davis retain his lightweight championship with a sixth-round spectacular knockout, sending Romero headfirst into the ropes. Romero got up but was dazed and the referee waved off the bout.
“The crazy thing is that I didn’t even throw (my knockout left hand counter) that hard,” Davis said. “He just ran into it.”
