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CNN Live Saturday

Interview with Allen Etter

Aired May 25, 2002 - 22:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you at the top of the hour, there was a bit of chaos tonight at a concert in Washington, D.C., when 30 people were injured in a mosh pit stampede. It happened as Eminem was performing at RFK Stadium. And joining us on the phone now is Allen Etter. He's with the D.C. fire department.

Alan, can you tell us what happened?

ALAN ETTER, D.C. FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, Catherine, I can tell you a little after 8:00 this evening, there was a bit of aggressive dancing, I guess you'd call it. They refer to it as mosh pit, the one down on the field. I believe Eminem was the artist was on stage at the time. There was a rush when he first came out on the stage. And several people were injured as a result of that.

Now we did take five people to the hospital, related to injuries that they sustained there. Most of them were not life threatening. However, there was a 20-year old man who was caught up in this excitement, who for one reason or another, went into cardiac arrest. And his condition is unknown right now.

CALLAWAY: So totally, do you know how many people were injured? Were there are a lot of people that were taken to the hospital?

ETTER: Well, no, we only took five people to the hospital.

CALLAWAY: That's it? Only just...

ETTER: Right, exactly. But there were a number of folks who had things like, you know, scrapes and bumps. Looking to our EMS providers here on the scene and wanted to be checked out. And you know, it's good that they did. But you know, this was a situation where apparently this -- a lot of the scanner chatter here made it sound a lot worse than what...

CALLAWAY: Right.

ETTER: ...in actuality it was.

CALLAWAY: We were getting a lot of reports on this. What -- did they continue with the concert?

ETTER: Yes, they did. You know, when I got here, actually, the music was still going on. So you know, the situation where, you know, it's an outdoor event. You know, you have -- you're going to have a lot of injuries anyway. People slip and fall. There are assaults. This is a situation where we had a number of people who had injuries consistent of folks, you know, getting trampled.

But nothing very life threatening, other than the one young man, who unfortunately, went into cardiac arrest.

CALLAWAY: Did you have trouble getting to those that were injured because of the number of people there?

ETTER: Actually, not at all, because there were actual -- there were announcements being made from the stage saying that there was an emergency going on. So the folks on the scene -- the folks down on the field, of course, were rather compliant. You know, they would -- they could see the paramedics were trying to deal with a situation. And so, they accommodated them.

CALLAWAY: Yes, well, I'm glad that this one did not turn out as many other incidents like this, where people rush a stage like that.

ETTER: Well, certainly, you know, and we've heard of situations, you know, overseas especially where there are stadium incidents and soccer games and things like that. That is nothing like that here. This is...

CALLAWAY: Oh, good.

ETTER: ...the situation which, thank goodness, was not as bad as it first seemed.

CALLAWAY: Good, Alan Etter with the D.C. fire department. Thank you, Alan.

ETTER: Thank you.

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