More than 50 people were injured during a Pride celebration at Washington Square Park Sunday evening when false reports of gunfire and the deployment of bear spray sparked a stampede of people fleeing for their lives, according to police and sources.
A shirtless man unleashed the potent chemicals in the park — burning several bystanders’ eyes — at the same time, rumors of gunfire led thousands to rush out of the Greenwich Village park, believing their lives were in danger.
The man was arrested by police at the scene, according to the NYPD.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many injuries were a result of the stampede and how many were due to the mace, but none were expected to be life-threatening.
Police estimated that there were roughly 10,000 people in the park at the time. Many rushed through the park in a panic and busted through police barriers.
The suspect apparently thought that he was going to be jumped, so he panicked and sprayed the bear mace in self-defense, sources told The Post.
Many attendees at the park had no idea what was happening, celebrants lingering near the park after the chaos told The Post.
Some thought that they heard popping and ran on instinct, figuring someone had opened fire on the crowd.
“We all thought some fanatic with a gun was shooting people, so of course we all ran in whatever direction would get us out of the park the fastest. But because there were thousands and thousands of people, you had all these barricades up preventing you from making the fastest escape. So we all had to file out in an organized fashion, which no one wanted to do because we were all scared,” Omari Loftin, a 20-year-old from Washington Heights, said.
Loftin said that he saw multiple people with various injuries, including some flushing their eyes out and one young man with blood running down the side of his head.
Others said the barricades did more harm than good while they were trying to escape, and even contributed to some of the chaos.
“Everyone’s dancing, everyone’s partying, and then everyone’s screaming. My friends and I didn’t know what happened, but word going around was that there were gunshots. I didn’t hear gunshots, but when you hear the word ‘gunshots,’ that’s all you really need to get yourself the f–k out of there,” Isaiah Whitehurst, 23, of Bedford Stuyvesant said.
“There was a stampede. People were screaming, tripping all over themselves. Cops were trying to clear the park, but there was barricades up and everyone’s getting pushed up so tight against the barricades and it’s like a bottleneck.”
An investigation into the mace incident is ongoing.
Every year, the Pride Parade through Manhattan ends at Washington Square Park, where many spend the day leaping in and out of the fountain.
Hours after the chaos, two people were shot outside the landmarked LGBTQ bar, The Stonewall Inn, which was hosting Pride celebrations all day long into the night.
While the day is largely celebratory, violence among groups has broken out in recent years.
Last year, multiple brawls broke out throughout the day from morning to night, leading to 22 arrests.
In 2022, one reveler at the park decided to light a batch of fireworks shortly after nightfall during a pro-choice rally that coincided with Pride, but many confused the popping with gunshots and made a run for it, sparking a stampede similar to the one observed Sunday.
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