Stabbing, Trampling Dim Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl Parade

Feb 8, 2013 - 0 Comments

Feb. 8, 2013 Huffington Post

The revelry turned to tragedy.

Amid the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl parade on Tuesday, a teenager was fatally stabbed, and an 11-year-old suffered head trauma when he was trampled outside M&T Bank Stadium, the Baltimore Sun reports.

The stabbing victim, Deontae Smith, 15, was just a few blocks away from the route where he was shown in police video being attacked by someone in purple as others in Ravens apparel watched, the Sun notes.

"He was a wonderful young man," Smith's uncle, Chris Jackson, told WBAL. The station said that police believe Smith knew his assailant. Two other teens were hospitalized in the assault.

The boy who was stomped, 11-year-old Tyrek Hodge, recounted his terror to the Sun. (Watch the video above.) As unruly throngs stormed the gates of the stadium, he tripped and fell, and then his mother hit the ground. A stranger pulled her son to safety, she said.

YouTube video of fans climbing the gates (watch below) illustrated the chaos, as Baltimore reportedly tried to cope with the far-more-than-expected 200,000 revelers.

Deadspin took a swipe at the crowd control with a headline that read, "Ravens Parade Enjoyed By All, Minus The Stabbing And Trampling." It called the city "woefully unprepared."

Even those who made it inside the stadium had problems. A mother of two told ABC 2 News that she had to surrender her seats to a mob that made racial slurs and threatened to stab her.

Despite the reports, Ravens president Dick Cass told the Sun that police succeeded in "avoiding any major safety issues." But the next time, he vowed, the Ravens would hand out free tickets so people would know that if they didn't get a ticket, they couldn't gain entry into the stadium.

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