The energy from Beyoncé’s sold-out “Cowboy Carter” concert at Mercedes-Benz Stadium took a dangerous turn late Monday night when a crowd incident unfolded just outside the venue.
Shortly after midnight, fans leaving the show flooded into the Vine City MARTA Station when sudden commotion broke out. According to MARTA officials, a woman reportedly screamed and ran after spotting an insect. The unexpected reaction caused panic among the tightly packed crowd, triggering a rush toward the station’s escalators.
As the escalator filled with people, witnesses say it began to accelerate without warning before jerking to a sudden stop. The abrupt malfunction caused dozens of passengers to lose balance, fall forward, and collapse on top of one another.
One of the people caught in the chaos, high school student Jacobi Edwards, described the moment: “It just created a whole entire slide full of people. It just started tumbling—people just tumbling on each other. It was crazy, it was chaotic.” Edwards left with a sprained ankle.
His mother, Dr. Billie Rucker, said she was traveling when she learned about the accident. She later expressed concern over the system’s safety and urged officials to reassess crowd management, especially ahead of major upcoming events in the city.
“We have the soccer tournaments coming up, and so these are some of the things we need to start looking at, especially like monitoring on public transportation,” she said. “We want to put our best foot forward.”
Emergency responders were seen assisting injured passengers at the scene. Nine people were hurt during the incident. One person suffered a broken ankle, seven others were treated at local hospitals for minor injuries, and one individual refused medical attention.
MARTA is continuing to investigate the incident and review crowd control protocols.
