What would you do if you were in a large crowd and hundreds of people came running in your direction telling you to run and get out?

So this happened to me last night. I went to Shake the Lake in Madison, Wisconsin. Huge fireworks festival where thousands gathered.

Just after the finale I heard 5 shots fired from a gun. Maybe about 200–300 ft away. My mind went to someone lighting fireworks in the crowd but I knew it was a gun. My husband had just walked toward the area to use a portapotty before we left. My son, his friend and I were packing our chairs. All of the sudden the crowd came running towards us. My son was almost trampled by a woman with a stroller. I was afraid we were all going to get knocked down and hurt. Not by a shooter but by the crowd.

My instincts were to not leave the area since my husband wasn’t with us and to make sure the children were safe. There were also no other shots fired since the first five. There was also no police presence in our vicinity. We weren’t the only ones to not follow the herd. We were all next to a large metal garbage bin that we could hide behind.

I’m still trying to process this. The crowd scared me more than the sounds of the gun.