What happened at Baltimore Pride? Mace, crowds, fireworks left some attendees confused.

Baltimore Police confirmed the “chemical agent” released at a Baltimore Pride event on Saturday evening was Mace, but the sequence of events left some attendees confused on what actually happened.

“What was kind of wild was that there were multiple incidents throughout the day, which may be why some people’s accounts don’t really match,” said Margie Miller, a 36-year-old Baltimore City resident who attended the annual Pride parade and block party.

Miller said she first saw people running when she was dancing to Sasha Miles’ DJ set, which began at 5:40 p.m., according to his Instagram account, near a smaller stage. She sought shelter behind a truck and heard people saying there were shots fired. Then others said it was a car accident, she said, which prompted some to worry the car had driven into the crowd.

Later, she saw running again between 8 and 8:30 p.m. by the main music stage.

Baltimore Police said Mace was sprayed when a fight broke out between two groups in front of the main music stage near North Avenue and Charles Street at approximately 8:30 p.m. Three people came in contact with the Mace, which was not released by police, and were treated at a local hospital, the department said.

Around the same time, police said, fireworks were set off in the crowd, prompting a “mass exodus,” which caused several injuries.

Miller and her friends were resting against a brick wall around that time when people started running past them, she said. Something in the air prompted everyone to start coughing, and once they could no longer breathe, they decided to leave the area, she said.

“I don’t think I was even trying to process what it was,” Miller said. “I was sort of just trying to stay safe, not breathe in the agent, not get run over by people.”

Once they squeezed through a small alleyway to get to a larger street, Miller said she saw people pouring water into other’s eyes before they found a woman whom they believed to be in respiratory distress. The woman then began shaking as if she was having a seizure, and the paramedics hesitated to come over despite many requests, Miller said.

“And then there was a helicopter flying around saying, ‘You’re safe. We’ve got it under control,’ while there were paramedics just standing there, sort of ignoring all the people who needed medical attention,” Miller said. “It just felt very weird.”

The Baltimore City Fire Department said in an email that several patients were “treated and transported” during the Pride block party event. When patients are experiencing asthma attacks and seizures, medics follow certain protocols for evaluating and treating them which usually involves an assessment and the administration of treatment, the department said.

Rumors started circulating through passersby, Miller said, but it wasn’t until she found a Reddit post that she heard more witness stories.

A video of Mace being sprayed during the fight in the crowd was posted on X, along with a video of people running during Saucy Santana’s set on the main stage at the time. Other stories of a smoke bomb and teens with toy guns circled on Reddit.

After seeing different videos, Miller said she was left thinking multiple chemical agents were deployed in the crowd. She saw some people rubbing their eyes, while she was only coughing.

The incidents made Miller feel “torn” about whether to attend Pride events next year.

“I don’t know who deployed those chemical agents,” Miller said. “But I would hate to sort of give in and be like, ‘Yeah, it’s too dangerous to go out and celebrate being gay for a day and be queer.’”