Hiiraan Online

Wednesday September 26, 2018

An evacuation at Valleyfair on Saturday night led to confusion, concern and many questions among guests and KARE 11 viewers.

Common questions included whether weapons made their way into the park and played a role in the evacuation. There were also numerous questions about whether gangs were involved.

First, here's what Shakopee Police are saying about the decision and what led to it:

"Late (Saturday) night, officers from Shakopee Police assigned to Valleyfair responded to reports of multiple fights. The number of individuals running throughout the park increased substantially and was difficult to control. Due to the large number of altercations, it was decided to clear the park of all guests. Officers from Shakopee and surrounding communities ushered out all guests from the park.

"There have been no reported injuries or property from (Saturday's) incident. There have been some comments about a knife being used in a fight, but at this time we have no evidence of any weapons being used in these altercations.

"We can report that three individuals were cited for minor offenses."

Many of the questions stemmed from a series of unsubstantiated claims detailed in a blog post (and later shared on Facebook). The blogger, citing anonymous witnesses, alleged that the violence was prompted by "Somali gangs" and later referred to the incident as a "Somali Riot."

The Shakopee Police Department responded directly to those claims on its Facebook page, stating, "No it wasn’t a Somalian riot". The department went on to say, "We had no evidence whatsoever that there was any specific gang affiliation with this incident."

KARE 11 reached out to several people who were at Valleyfair during the evacuation on Saturday. None of them reported seeing anything resembling gang activity or riots.

"We didn't even realize anything had happened until the lights in the park came on," said Michael Marshall, who was at the park with Kerry Dikken and captured cell phone video of the evacuation and one person being taken away by police. "I didn't see any gang-type activity at all."