GEDDES, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — New York State Police are continuing to investigate Sunday night’s, Sept. 1, incident at the State Fairgrounds after reports of a shooting. So far, state police say there is no evidence that a shooting took place.
What was supposed to be a fun concert at the state fairgrounds quickly turned into chaos.
“All I heard was screaming and then everybody running,” said Erica Weiskopff of Liverpool.
A terrifying moment for Weiskopff and her 16-year-old sister.
“At one point, a man had his hand at my neck, and we’re pushed into a picnic table, and I just told her to get under because she was like, what do I do, what do I do,” said Weiskopff.
She says they were caught in the middle of Sunday night’s chaos at the Rick Ross concert after reports of a shooting that happened around 8:30 p.m. in the area of the Midway and Suburban Park.
“We were being shoved, and then before I knew it, it was just over. Nobody knew what happened. There was no explanation. I was just in a lot of pain. My back still is hurting,” Weiskopff said.
Timothy Dean, the manager of Big Kahuna’s vendor, located right next to the Suburban Park stage, was also there when chaos erupted mid-concert.
“They said somebody had yelled gun, and it was just a mass chaos of everybody trying to exit the area,” said Dean.
He says some concertgoers tried to hide near his concession stand. He also witnessed others trying to jump over some of the concession stand tables.
“There were no shots fired out here. There was no sounds of gunfire at all,” said Dean.
The Fair decided to close early Sunday night because of the incident but reopened on Monday, September 2, as scheduled.
“There is not a minute in time that you don’t have a dozen agencies looking over to make sure everything here is as safe as it can be,” said Julie LaFave, director of the New York State Fair.
But others still don’t feel safe.
“I don’t want to go back to the Fair. My daughter is six. She’s been dying to see a concert. I wanted to take her, and I can’t do that because I don’t know if it’s safe or not,” said Weiskopff.
New York State Police says they are still investigating, releasing this statement to NewsChannel 9:
Overnight , we conducted a grid search of the entire fairgrounds for any evidence of a possible shooting. So far, we have no evidence that a shooting took place. We are still following up on dozens of interviews with people who called 911 to report they heard gun hots. All of the interviews we have conducted indicate those who called 911 thought they heard gun fire but didn’t actually see anyone with a gun.
If anyone has any information, we are asking them to contact State Police at the State Police Fairgrounds Headquarters (315) 728-4200.
New York State Police
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