It was an ugly end as the San Francisco Civic Center celebration at the end of Sunday's Pride Parade had to be cut short after someone started spraying mace near the stage, officials said.
The incident caused a panic and in the hour that followed there were reports of street brawls as people left the event.
A security guard NBC Bay Area spoke with said two stampedes broke out with crowds running for the exits amid rumors of a gun.
San Francisco police said at around 5:25 p.m. officers assigned to the Civic Center area for the city's Pride Festival responded to the area of Seventh and Market streets on a report of a shooting.
Police said officers responded to the area and were unable to find any victims or witnesses.
It turned out to be a false alarm with real consequences.
Local
Officials added that it did not appear that there was any merit to a shooting in the area, and officers remained on scene to ensure safety and security of the city's Pride events.
“Everyone was panicked. Everyone was screaming but like nobody really knew what was going on at first, so I was kind of like 'why is everyone scared?' and then I just heard, 'gun, gun, gun,'” said Zen Williams.
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“Apparently, someone got maced and as soon as the cops started running, everyone started running,” said Antonio Chavez.
NBC Bay Area spoke to several people running from the area and many had no idea what was going on but said with everything else going on around the nation, they decided to run when they saw others doing the same.
“I literally, I tweeted the other day, I’m kind of scared to go to Pride just because I’ve seen all the stuff that’s been going around different Pride events,” Williams said.
Organizers from San Francisco LGBT Pride tweeted at 7:34 p.m. Sunday that the group shut down a musical performance on the Kaiser Permanente main stage early at Sunday's Pride celebration after the incident.
"Although no one was harmed, it was not a pleasant experience," the tweet said, confirming what was said at the time on stage. "We decided to cut the performance short in the interest of safety."
But as officers were ushering people out, a new problem happened as there were reports of multiple street brawls.
A viewer video that was shot near Polk and Hayes Street showed two people fighting and others trying to join them. Some people it's the ending they didn't want but did expect.
“Honestly, it’s kind of what I expected just because of how things are going in the country,” Williams said.
But for most NBC Bay Area spoke with said that these Sunday night bumps were a footnote in what they see as an overwhelmingly successful Pride weekend.
“Oh no, it’s Pride, were going to show resilience,” Chavez said.
Bay City News Contributed to the report.
