Following the shooting incident at the BPM Festival’s closing Elrow party at the Blue Parrot, we’ve gather our own first hand accounts as well as those from other credible news outlets to give those who were the there a voice to express the terrifying events of what occurred. The BPM Festival and local police have issued an official statement identifying only 1 gunmen, 5 fatalities, and 15 wounded currently, however, many first hand accounts seem to say otherwise. It can be concluded that there were more gunmen at the scene than the official statement suggests.
“My group and I entered the venue about 15 minutes before the shooting took place. Calle 12 was filled with people, which was not surprising to any of us despite the hour of the night at 2:10AM. We walked into a packed venue where a lot of psychedelic tapestries and art hung from the ceiling, typical of the vibes Elrow tries to promote at their parties. We walked to the back left corner of the venue past the restrooms, where a lot of the drug dealers do their bidding. There’s always more room to dance at this particular spot, where the venue is elevated by wooden planks and floorboards. A little before 2:30AM, I heard what sounded like a firecracker or fireworks going off, but I was gravely mistaken as screams of panicky attendees began and we all ducked for cover. The gunshots had came from the front of the venue near the entrance. The DJs lowered the music’s volume when the first shots went off and then for some reason they turned it back up as if nothing was happening. That’s when another round of shots went off and more screams were heard. This time from the opposite side where we were towards the beach. We were trapped. “We gotta get the fuck outta here,” one of my friends shouted and we all ran for the beachfront fences to escape. We had to hop over two fences, a small wooden one and a tall metal one that separated the venue from the beach. Before I hopped over the metal fence, I overheard a woman screaming right behind and she was almost trampled by other attendees. I shouted at them to stop and pulled her out of the pile of plastic chairs she was pinned in. The fence had to be 8 feet tall, so I hoisted my girlfriend up before I could get over. The fence was shaking back and forth with all the attendees trying to get out. I was the last person in our group to get over the fence and I saw blood over the rocks people were jumping on. My girlfriend landed hard on her feet into the rocks and rolled her ankle. I had her sit for a quick second only to have my friend, who had someone else’s blood on his shirt, grab us both and push us further up the beach. The tide was so high as we were trying to escape for our lives. Thankfully our condo we rented was just the next block up the street. We had barely escaped with our lives. I’m not sure how many gunmen there were exactly, but there had to be more from where those gunshot sounds were coming from.”
“So…..here it goes.
We walked in around 2:15 -2:30 A.M. to Blue Parrot and got their late because we were all tired. Half the group passed out early that night and didn’t go out. We were there for about 10-15 minutes when we heard the first set of shots (5-10 semi-auto shots) from the entrance to the club. Everyone scattered and went to hide. No one could confirm they were shots and someone yelled they were just fireworks so the music went back on for about 5 seconds when the second set of shots from directly behind us. Sounded like they were no more than 20 feet away. A girl that was crouched next to me grabbed ahold of me, screaming for her life. I located two of the people in my group and told them to run. The club is open to the beach and is only separated by a fence so we, along with 75% of the club, started to scale chairs and jump the fence. Started to help some people over who couldn’t do it alone while I located all 3 of the people I was with. Once we were all over we ran along the beach back to our place.
First reports were all over the place, but this morning it seems that there were multiple shooters who came back to the club over an issue with one of the promoters of BPM/Blue Parrot. A couple entered from the front and the others shot through the fence in the back.
We were directly next to that fence, which is actually shocking to think about. Luckily our group is alright other than someone spraining an ankle from scaling the fence. Counting my blessings that I am now back in LA.”
Billboard also gathered their own eye-witnesses that seem to confirm multiple shooters as well:
“They got denied because they didn’t want to be patted down. Three of them left out of our vision and two of them shot security guards at the entrance, ran in and aimlessly opened fire. There were two guys there, not one like the news incorrectly reports. One of the dudes I saw try to get in was just casually walking with everyone else with the gun in his hand. We looked at each other and he sort of waved it at me, as in ‘it’s none of my business, keep walking,’ and I wondered why the police were not doing a single thing.”
When we hopped the fence, there were already people down on the other side,People that were with us saw a gunman running down the beach as well. There was definitely someone at the top of the beach coming down because everyone just started running down the other way being, like, ‘There’s another f–king gunman. I just want people to know the truth, because it was not just some crazy lone gunman. I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel right.”
Steve Rwayitire, another Blue Parrot attendee took to his Facebook to describe what had ensued:
Following the shooting at Blue Parrot, reports of shootings have erupted in the next major city north in Cancun. Although not reportedly related or new to Mexico’s history in cartel violence, the BPM Festival incident seems to have set off a wave of violence.
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