12 taken to hospital after Atlantic Beach fights ‘causing panic,’ officials say

ATLANTIC BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — On Sunday morning, Atlantic Beach Mayor Pro Tem, John David, told ABC 15 there was not a “mass casualty” event last night, and there were no deaths.

“It’s like Christmas. It only comes once a year, I’ve come all the way from Atlanta Georgia to sell T-shirts,” said Danny Brewster, T-shirt City vendor from Atlanta, Georgia.

“I’ve been doing this since 1995 and I want continuously to come, but we got to control the young generation and give them something to do so we can have bike week,” said Brewster.

This comes after reports were circulating on social media of a mass casualty at the event late Saturday evening into the morning.

Two concert goers told us they were at the event to attend the free concert when everyone started running out of nowhere at 11:50 p.m.

“The person in front of me, he fell, which caused me to fall,” said concert goer, De’vashia Gibson. “She fell which caused my other two sisters to fall and I just remember like on my way down, I just was praying like Lord I don’t wanna die like this because you can die in a doggone stampede.”

“It was very scary,” said Cassandra Hepburn.

They were only two out of around a dozen treated for injuries.

“People don’t need to play if they were playing or a false narrative because all it can do is take one person to get out of character and everybody start to act like animals,” said Hepburn.

We spoke with people at the event who said they were unaware of an incident.

Town of Atlantic Beach Mayor Pro Tem, John David, said it was not a mass casualty no matter what’s said on social media.

“There was absolutely no mass casualty. I don’t know who would say that, that’s ridiculous. When you think of mass casualty you think of deaths,” said David.

David said the crime scene tape around the Main Stage was only used to block off areas and not used to mark a crime.

Vendors said off camera, they saw a fight or a few fights break out between young people. But they said that didn’t stop them from being at the event.

“I hate to say it but about a black town they want to say something really bad. It was a beautiful night and if you were here at 2 o’clock you would’ve seen people dancing in the street, walking in the street and eating in the street,” said David.

Vendors said the situation is just disappointing as thousands look forward to bike week every year in Atlantic Beach.

“Bike week is not the same because we’re beginning to get a young crowd like even elementary kids were out here last night. These parents need to let their kids stay at home and let older people enjoy bike week,” said Brewster.

“The older people they leave because they don’t wanna mess with people like last night. They ran three times, people got hurt. We don’t need that here,” said Brewster.

Officials said that several people were injured trying to leave the area after a couple of fights broke out “causing panic in the crowd,” according to a statement from the Town of Atlantic Beach.

Horry County Fire Rescue later said that 12 people were transported ted to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and six additional people signed medical transport waivers.

The Town of Atlantic Beach said that adequate police and medical staff were on hand to aid and transport individuals to the hospital.

In response to online reports earlier, town officials said:

We sincerely regret that anyone was injured, but we also regret the unfactual information that is being falsely spread about the Atlantic Beach Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival.

READ NEXT: 4 detained after early morning police chase in Horry County

Horry County Fire Rescue said they were dispatched at 11:56 p.m. on Saturday to the area of 30th Avenue in Atlantic Beach for “a reported disturbance with multiple injuries.”

The U.S. Department of Energy defines a mass casualty as: “An incident in which the number of patients and the severity of their injuries exceed the capacity of area medical systems and facilities, as identified by the lab, plant, or site. The incident produces more patients than the responding jurisdiction is routinely capable of handling and necessitates an uncommon level of resource mobilization.”

Town officials said the music was paused, but the event continued with the closing time at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning.