LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - In the wake of Saturday's Salt Bowl false alarm that sent thousands of high school football fans scrambling out of War Memorial Stadium, investigators are blaming two notoriously unreliable things in the way of determining exactly what happened: Ear-witnesses and social media posts.
To try and get to the facts, our Verify team talked to two people for insight into concerns that keep surfacing:
- A stun gun going off is partially blamed for exacerbating the chaos, but does a stun gun sound like gunfire?
- How much security was there and did they do enough to keep weapons like that from getting into the stadium?
Is this a problem of security?
“We did check bags,” said Meg Matthews, spokesperson for Arkansas Parks and Tourism, the operators of War Memorial. “We did not wand everybody. That is just what we do in games like high school football games.”
College football games and big concerts, like last year’s Guns N Roses show, only allow clear bags.
If a bag didn't get searched Saturday, the patron could have gotten away with something. Metal detectors are not under consideration, but there is a specific process to which people have a detection wand waved over them.
“We wand every few people,” Matthews said. “The reason why is something that law enforcement has come up with through training and experience.”
A wand would have picked up the stun gun and clearly, security missed it, but we can verify there was a security plan in place to try and deter weapons like it from getting by the gates.
Does a stun gun sound like gunfire?
For Eric Baker of Personal Security Products of Little Rock, stun guns and the Salt Bowl are his business. His daughter attended the game and left in the 3rd quarter, just as the fighting broke out. He says his daughter often helps out at his warehouse.
“We probably sell anywhere from 250,000 to half-a-million of them a year,” Baker said. He was holding a plastic and metal cylinder in his hand, with prongs and bright flashing sparks when triggered. It’s different from a Taser brand of stun gun that fires projectiles that conduct electricity.
“A stun gun will go through clothing, but you actually have to have contact with someone for a stun gun to work,” he said.
Based on his daughter’s account and his experience, he has his doubts about the role a stun gun may have played in escalating the panic. When “dry fired” the weapon makes a staccato buzz with a sound that is part deep fryer and part bug zapper. The popping nature does hint at a machine gun but at a different pitch.
Baker has a clear opinion.
“The sound of a stun gun when it's dry fired sounds totally and absolutely nothing like gunfire or a gunshot,” he said.
On top of that noise, police say barricades were knocked over and law enforcement members actually yelled "gun."
All a recipe for chaos.
A part-time stadium security worker actually got a hold of the stun gun, which Matthews says may be why some people thought it was law enforcement who fired it. The person who did fire the stun gun allegedly managed to slip away in the melee.
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