Posted on March 29, 2022

Massive Crowds Cause Trouble in Panama City Beach

Jake Holter, WMBB, March 27, 2022

The Walmart on Front Beach Road is once again closed and barricaded as law enforcement officers continue to deal with large and rowdy crowds.

Rowdy crowds gathered in large numbers and disrupted many Panama City Beach businesses Saturday night, many of which closed down early out of safety concerns.

“I didn’t see any shooting but people were talking about it but I did hear about it and everybody was running,” visitor Ladariya Gurley said. “We were getting run over by people. They were pushing us.”

{snip}

Local fine dining establishment Firefly closed three hours early Saturday night.

{snip}

Pink Pelican Ice Cream Bar manager Brian Watson said they had hardly any business Saturday night because of the crowds.

“Last night there was just mayhem,” Watson said. “There were people all over the sidewalks, enough to where people couldn’t freely walk through the sidewalk.”

Walmart told News 13 in a statement: “We are aware of what happened in our store Saturday and are disturbed by the actions of this group. The store did close a few hours later for reasons unrelated to this incident. We’ll continue working closely with local police and must refer other questions to law enforcement.”

{snip}

Original Article