‘It’s just like chaos;’ People describe scene after shot fired during Dayton Children’s Parade

DAYTON — Dayton Police continue to investigate what led to gunfire erupting during a holiday celebration Friday night as the Dayton Children’s Parade ended abruptly.

People ran after hearing a gunshot in the area.

>>Police confirm a shot was fired during Dayton Children’s Parade downtown; No one injured

News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis spoke with people at the event. They said the 50th annual Dayton Holiday Festival will be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Lauren Diffendal and her family were enjoying the holiday festivities in Downtown Dayton Friday night when the chaos ensued.

“I’m yelling, ‘what’s going on? What’s going on?’ Nobody was saying anything,” she said. “I just hear people screaming, people running.”

The Fairborn resident was taking in the spirits and sounds of the Dayton Children’s Parade when it suddenly stopped.

“The parade stops, police are running across the street and then I see moving in a wall coming down the street towards us,” Diffendal told Lewis. “I ended up trying to leave and I got pretty much an over, knocked to ground and ran over.”

>>1 shot, wounded in downtown Springfield, near Holiday in the City festivities

She thinks she was on the ground for about five to ten seconds and that she’s grateful not to have gotten trampled.

It left her with some scrapes and soreness.

“I’m still kind of shaky from the whole thing,” said Diffendal.

Jessica Altan from Kettering was along the parade route. She remembers taking off running with everyone else.

“It just like chaos,” she told Lewis.

Chaos Dayton Police are hoping to get to the bottom of.

They believe one boy fired at least one round into the air as two girls were fighting, Dayton Police said in a news conference Friday.

“We’re taking this seriously,” said Lt. Col. Eric Henderson, Dayton Police Assistant Chief. “We’re going to investigate this to the fullest extent we can.”

Asked if they would consider going to next year’s parade, Diffendal and Alten gave different answers.

“I don’t know,” said Diffendal. “I mean it was fine up until then so that’s a kind of a plus; but at the same time I’m kind of scared of gatherings now, big gatherings like that.”

“We come up here all the time, so it won’t stop us,” Alten said.

Lewis reports one man was also shot Friday night in Springfield near its Holiday in the City festivities. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

©2022 Cox Media Group