Opinion: Fair's false alarm offers reminder: Care for each other

Charlie Corn was at his booth in the Curry County Fairground’s Commercial Building on Wednesday night when a teenage girl appeared, frantically running down the aisle.

“She was crying and screaming and couldn’t breathe,” Corn said. “The first thing I did was try to look at her, to see if there was any blood or if maybe she’d been shot. She was extremely scared.”

Moments later, a second teen girl appeared in the building. “Same kind of thing. She was hysterical, panicking,” Corn said.

Then a man began rushing from booth to booth, telling everyone to “get down, get down. There’s an active shooter right now.”

We know now there was no active shooter at the fair. Law enforcement is convinced no shots were fired and there’s no evidence anyone even threatened to shoot anyone. There was a fight, apparently between groups of teenagers on the south end of the carnival Midway. But how did that escalate into false reports of “active shooter” that sent hundreds of panicked fairgoers to the exits, running, pushing, climbing over fences?

That’s what bothers Corn. That’s what bothers all of us. That and the lack of accurate information that could have prevented a half hour of terror for children and their guardians.

“There was not notification from any kind of authority ever … which is kind of unfortunate,” Corn said Thursday afternoon.

“Everyone was panicking. The misinformation was everywhere. I guess what I find disturbing is people who don’t know for sure what happened would go and say there’s an active shooter out there right now.

“The other thing that was unfortunate, for me, is that no law enforcement went through the buildings to say, ‘It’s OK. Come on out. It’s all over.’ A lot of people were really scared and it would have helped a lot if somebody had come around and said, ‘Hey. It’s OK now.’”

We don’t know who’s to blame for the panic that resulted in several children and adults being banged up as they tried to run away. And Corn isn’t blaming anyone specifically.

But this seems a good time to analyze the events of Wednesday night and try to learn from them.

There’s nothing anyone can do to prevent someone from yelling fire in a crowded theater that’s not on fire. But if you know someone who’s doing that, tell them to cut it out and then tell others about the lie.

We also can’t expect officialdom to walk around with a loudspeaker and say there’s not really a fire until it’s confirmed there’s no fire. But why not do that when there is confirmation the coast is clear?

There were inspiring acts of caring that should not be forgotten from that awful night. Four teenagers stopped to help a 96-year-old man who was having trouble keeping up with the rushing crowd; a 10-year-old girl separated from her family found comfort in a police officer who let her use his cell phone; countless strangers watched over frightened children until their parents found them.

Maybe that’s what we should remember most about Wednesday night.

Maybe all we can really do in this situation is exactly what most people did – try to get to safety, hide until we’re sure it’s safe to come out, and try to help those around us who maybe aren’t handling the stress so well.

We’re living in troubled times. Our best hope is to take care of each other.

— David Stevens

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