Third person dies following stampede at GloRilla concert

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A crowd surged at the end of a GloRilla concert Sunday in New York, according to police.

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Update 1:37 p.m. EST March 9: Police say a third person has died in the wake of the stampede at the GloRilla concert, The Washington Post reported.

The third victim, who died Wednesday night, was identified by Rochester police as Syracuse resident Aisha Stephens.

Stephens, Rhondesia Belton, 33, and Brandy Miller, 35, all died after audience members at a GloRilla concert attempted to run from the venue during the concert. It is still not known what caused the rush out of the building.

- Debbie Lord, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Update 7:57 p.m. EST March 6: Police said that a second person has died following the stampede at a GloRilla concert, according to The Associated Press.

Earlier, Rhondesia Belton, 33, was killed after she was injured in the crowd surge, the AP reported. The second victim has not yet been identified.

As of Monday evening, police said one person remains in the hospital in critical condition, WROC-TV reported.

- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Original story: Police Chief David Smith said people began to rush toward the exit at the Main Street Armory just after 11 p.m. Inside the venue, officers found three women with “significant injuries,” including one who later died at a hospital, the chief said.

The woman, whose name was not released, was identified as a 33-year-old, according to WROC-TV. The other two injured women remained in critical condition on Monday, “still fighting for their lives,” Smith said.

Seven other people later arrived at hospitals with injuries from the apparent trampling. Smith said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

It was not immediately clear what made the crowd surge.

“There are some reports that shots were heard, causing the crowd to panic, but that has not been confirmed,” Smith said. “We are hearing many reports of potential causes, including possibly crowd size, shots fired, pepper spray and other contributing factors.”

Mayor Malik Evans called the incident a “tragedy of epic proportions” and vowed that officials “are going to hold people accountable for what happened last night, period.”

“When you go to a concert, you do not expect to be trampled,” he said. “Your loved ones expect you to be able to come home and talk about the experience that you had at that … great concert.”

The incident happened after a concert featuring rappers GloRilla and Finesse2tymes. WHAM-TV reported.

Earlier this year, GloRilla was up for a Grammy Award alongside Hitkidd for best rap performance for “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).” In a post on Twitter, GloRilla said she was “praying everybody is ok” after learning about the trampling.