Witnesses describe confusion, chaos as hundreds of people ran away from shooter in downtown Lafayette
Some witnesses to the downtown shooting in Lafayette say there was a stampede of people running away from the shooter
LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) Witnesses of the downtown Lafayette shooting early Sunday morning are speaking out about what it was like to be there.
Twelve people, including the suspect, were injured. Police say the gunman opened fire in the 500 block of Jefferson Street just before 2 a.m.
"I heard some commotion down the street, and it was quite literally a stampede of people running down Jefferson. It was at least about 100 people running down the street," Connor Frederick told News Ten.
Frederick says he was standing outside a bar about two blocks from the area where the gunman opened fire. He didn't hear the shots, but he knew immediately something was wrong.
"There was a lot of commotion. A lot of people, a lot of noise, and a lot of chaos for a second," he added.
Shelbi Rodrigue and Macy Romero were in that crowd of people, running for cover.
"You could feel the fear of people, and I almost got ran over. You had to run. It was terrible," Rodrigue said.
Romero says she didn't see any of the 11 victims get shot, but she did hear the gunfire.
"It literally sounded like balloons popping, but when I looked back because that's not normal, everybody was running towards me. I looked at her and said, 'We got to go,' because they were coming at us. Nobody's going to stop for you. You got to go," Romero said.
Romero and Rodrigue say they ran to find shelter from not only the gunman, but the crowd of people swarming towards them.
"You could feel the energy of the crowd just coming towards you, and it made you just want to run. It was just so strong. She took off running. She's like, 'I think they're shooting.' Sure enough, they had people screaming saying, 'They're shooting!' It was scary," Rodrigue said.
The two women say they found shelter in the crevice of a building and remained hidden until the gunfire stopped, and police had taken control of the situation.