A night at a Central Texas rodeo ended in chaos after dozens of people heard gunshots and ran away from the scene. The incident reportedly happened at Rodeo Austin on Tuesday, March 24.
Travis County Sheriff’s Office told MySA that multiple agencies, including off-duty officers, responded to the scene at the rodeo Tuesday evening when they received reports of shots fired around 9:20 p.m. after a crowd of people began running and dispersing from the area. TCSO said it was unable to confirm any gunfire or sightings of a weapon.
Authorities later learned the incident began as a physical disturbance between minors. No injuries were reported and TCSO confirmed no arrests were made by the agency. Several rodeo attendees took to social media last night to share their experience and mixed reactions to what they witnessed.
“We remained calm and got to our vehicle,” he said. “To me it felt like it was false info and people were panicking over someone else’s response to the scenario which was most likely an overreaction.”
Another rodeo visitor posted in the Austin subreddit that they were at the rodeo and saw “hundreds of people started running at once.” They said police told them it was not a shooting and they believed it was “only a big fight.”
“…it was scary because it’s super packed tonight,” Reddit user Diolives wrote on the platform. “Hoping to quell any rumors for now.”
Others chimed in on the conversation with one Facebook user writing, “So sad, can’t even take the family out for fun at carnival” and another Reddit user who said they visited the Rodeo last night criticized the event’s security.
“I didn’t hear gunshots either but it was still so scary with the crowd,” the user wrote. “The security was NOT checking bags properly I literally saw people on the sides just walk through without even showing ticket or walking through detector which is unacceptable.y”
MySA reached out to Rodeo Austin for comment.Â