Three people were injured as a San Francisco staging of Hamilton ended in chaos Friday after a medical emergency in the audience was mistaken for an active shooter inside the venue. The Orpheum Theatre was evacuated and the evening’s Hamilton performance was cut short after the series of incidents, which began when a woman in the audience suffered a heart attack during the musical’s duel scene where Alexander Hamilton is shot. Because of the timing between the medical emergency and the gunfire within the musical, some in the audience believed there was an active shooter in the theater, resulting in a rush towards the exits, CNN reports. San Francisco’s KPIX added that someone in the audience shouted “Gun!” The retrieval of the theater’s defibrillator to treat the heart attack victim also triggered an emergency alarm system in the theater, adding to the chaotic scene. NBC Bay Area reported that a boy also suffered a seizure during the chain of events. “During a medical event at the SHN Orpheum Theatre this evening an audience member activated the theater’s fire pull station,” the theater’s operator tweeted. “The audience and cast followed the life/safety system’s automatic announcement and exited the theater.” “There was no one with a gun, there were no shots fired, at the end it was a medical emergency,” San Francisco Police Captain Renee Pagano later said. The heart attack victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition, while two other people were hospitalized with minor injuries. Friday’s Hamilton performance was canceled after the incident. Rick Negron, who plays King George in Hamilton‘s touring production, tweeted about the incident Friday night:<doc-sep>SAN FRANCISCO — The Orpheum Theatre is “reviewing the events” that led to a false alarm about an active shooter and a chaotic evacuation of the theater during a performance of the musical Hamilton on Friday night, according to a statement released by the show’s producers and SHN, the theater’s owners. “Uncertainty in the auditorium about a medical emergency taking place near the end of the show spread quickly and prompted the upset,” the statement said, acknowledging that the situation had resulted in “alarm and confusion for the audience.” Three people were sent to the hospital with injuries incurred during the evacuation of the theater, according to authorities. The statement said that the theater is contacting patrons who attended the Friday performance and inviting them back for another performance of the hit musical. But angry theatergoers on Saturday criticized the theater’s handling of the incident. “You’re in a darkened theater, and you see images of people dropping and saying ‘get down,’ you have no idea what’s going on,” said Stephen Andrew, who was sitting in the orchestra section. “Your only instinct is to react…it was sheer panic really, and there was nothing to calm it down,” he said, adding, “If they knew it was a medical emergency, they should have announced it…that would have been the easiest thing to have done.” Some audience members took to Twitter and other social media, describing the experience as terrifying and disorganized and the theater staff’s response as inadequate. “There was absolutely no support from the staff, no announcement, no nothing,” tweeted Emma Yu, who was sitting in the theater’s orchestra section, in response to a tweet by SHN. “I saw staff hiding themselves. The evacuation was self-organized. The audience was clueless and panicked, hiding behind their seats,” she said. Another audience member, Heidi Kling, tweeted: “It was mass chaos.” According to the San Francisco Fire Department, a woman in the audience suffered a heart attack during the Friday night performance, prompting someone to call for help. A defibrillator was pulled out, apparently triggering a automatic alarm, which some people who attended the show reported hearing and others did not, said fire Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter. That prompted panic to spread across the room, Baxter said, with someone reportedly shouting about a gun, causing people to flee the theater. Police officers who were already present as part of a police detail assigned to special events detail were told by people exiting the theater that there was an active shooter inside. t Kling, in addition to tweeting about the incident, said she and the people she was with ran a block from the theater, before ducking down another street and into a restaurant. “The scene outside was bedlam,” she wrote. “People scattering and crying in whole mobs of people. After we’d run a whole block—in the cold, in dress clothes—someone collapsed so we thought the shooter was now outside and following us.” The false alarm and the ensuing panic occurred at a time when a series of mass shootings in public venues have sensitized many Americans to the possibility of violence. Earlier in the day on Friday, a man in Chicago shot and killed five co-workers after being terminated from his job, wounding five police officers before he was killed in a shootout with police, according to the Chicago Tribune. Baxter said one of the officers at the site ran into the theater, while notifying dispatch on his radio of a potential active shooter, prompting a larger police response. The city’s emergency management system and police and fire departments were put on standby in case there was a shooter, although no such threat was found, he said. The woman who suffered a heart attack was revived and transported to a hospital. Of the three people injured during the evacuation, one is believed to have broken their leg and two others had moderate injuries requiring medical attention, Baxter said. Laura Lasnier, who sat in the balcony with her husband and two children, ages 4 and 9, said during the last song of the show, she heard a noise from the audience below, causing a commotion and the actors to leave the stage. The lights were shut off briefly and her family sheltered under their seats because there were people on both sides blocking them from leaving, she said. Eventually they were able to leave their row and ran up the stairs and out the theater. While her family felt there was no active threat by the time they left the building, Lasnier said the lack of information about what was happening, and seeing people panicking and crying, made it hard for her children to calm down. “I think we’re conditioned to think it’s someone with a gun,” Lasnier said. Baxter said the theater’s emergency exits and other life safety equipment were functioning and unblocked. To his knowledge, the department also hasn’t received complaints about the facility in the past. He said the department received conflicting accounts from people about whether or not an alarm went off, with some people saying they heard an alarm and others saying they heard none. “Moving forward and without pointing fingers at any individuals, our recommendation for individuals attending large public events is to take two to five minutes to evaluate your means of egress for any situation,” said Baxter. “Take time to talk to your friends and family about, if there’s a fire or earthquake or shooter, what are we going to do to get out.”<doc-sep>
Hamilton type Stage genre Musical Three attendees of a Friday night performance of Hamilton in San Francisco were injured after a medical emergency was allegedly mistaken for an active shooter situation. According to a series of tweets from the San Francisco Fire Department, an automated external defibrillator (AED) was pulled when an individual suffered a medical emergency during the showing at The Orpheum Theatre. The AED also triggered an alarm during the performance that resulted in “confusion and an un-organized rapid exit of the theater.” Journalist Joe Khalil, who was present for the showing, tweeted the “mass panic” was fueled when “members of the audience started screaming and running.” He noted, “shouts of ‘gun’ could be heard.” A representative for the San Francisco Police Department told EW it appeared the triggered alarm coincided with the sounds of gunfire from the production, at which point the audience began “self-evacuating.” A rep for The Orpheum Theatre could not confirm this detail at this time. “During this process, 3 additional adults were injured, one with a broken leg, and 2 with moderate injuries,” the SFFD account tweeted. The rep further confirmed to EW that the initial woman needing medical assistance, whose pulse returned with CPR and paramedics, was transported to the hospital with life-threatening conditions. She remains in critical condition, though an update on the conditions of the other injured was not known at the time. In addition to releasing a tweet on the incident, the Shorenstein Hays Nederlander (SHN), the theatrical entertainment company from the Bay Area, offered a statement to EW. “The producers of Hamilton and SHN are reviewing the events that brought an abrupt end to the performance in San Francisco last night and resulted in alarm and confusion for the audience at the SHN Orpheum Theatre,” it reads. “Uncertainty in the auditorium about a medical emergency taking place near the end of the show spread quickly and prompted the upset. Along with SHN, the owners of the Orpheum, we remain dedicated to protecting the safety of our audiences and our own company members in every city where Hamilton plays. Patrons at last night’s performance are in the process of being contacted and invited to return to see Hamilton at the Orpheum.” This article has been updated with a statement from the SHN. Related content: