Officials identify second concertgoer who died after crowd surge at GloRilla concert
The death toll from a recent Rochester, N.Y. concert, featuring rappers GloRilla and Finesse2tymes, has risen.
Hours after reporting that a woman was killed after sustaining injuries from the crowd surge, the Rochester Police Department confirmed that another concertgoer had also died.
As the show at Rochester’s Main Street Armory ended just after 11 p.m., false fears of a shooting sent attendees pushing toward the exits. A 33-year-old woman, Rhondesia Belton, was killed and nine others were injured, Rochester police said Monday in a news briefing, according to the Associated Press.
Lt. Greg Bello announced the death of a second concertgoer late Monday. On Tuesday morning, Bello confirmed that the second victim was 35-year-old Rochester resident Brandy Miller.
According to the police department, the third “remaining hospitalized victim remains in critical condition.”
Sunday’s Grammys celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with legends such as Big Boi, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J and Scarface.
Police Chief David M. Smith said authorities “do not have any evidence of gunshots being fired or of anyone being shot or stabbed at the scene.”
“What began last night as a night of live music and fun for the performer GloRilla ended in tragedy with one person dead and two more fighting for their lives,” he said.
“I’m just now hearing about what happened,” the Grammy-nominated GloRilla tweeted late Sunday. “praying everybody is ok.”
Once police made their way inside the venue, they found three women with critical injuries. Belton died at a hospital, and the other two were in critical condition, police said. The others were taken to hospitals and treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, Smith said.
Mayor Malik D. Evans called the fatal stampede “a tragedy of epic proportions” and promised that a thorough investigation would “hold people accountable.”
Several potential causes for the fatal surge, including “crowd size, shots fired, pepper spray and other contributing factors,” are being investigated, police said.
Sixteen months after the Astroworld Festival tragedy, Scott took to the Rolling Loud California stage for his first full-scale concert since that fateful day.
Memphis, Tenn., rapper GloRilla, 23, was nominated for a rap performance Grammy Award this year for her song “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” with Hitkidd. She also performed in the all-star hip-hop tribute last month at the awards show.
The deaths from Sunday’s GloRilla show are the latest in crowd-surge fatalities during high-profile events. Ten people died during Travis Scott’s annual AstroWorld festival in Houston in 2021, and in late October more than 150 people died during a crowd surge at a Halloween celebration in Seoul.
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
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