San Francisco Pride ends early over ‘no merit’ shooting fear

San Francisco Pride revelry was cut short on Sunday after reports of gunfire — later determined to be “without merit” — sent people running.

Police asked people to go home due to security reasons before the events were scheduled to end, KNTV-TV reported.

Cops told KNTV that at about 5:25 p.m., officers patrolling the Civic Center area for the Pride Festival responded to reports of a shooting near Seventh and Market Sts. However they were “unable to locate any victims or witnesses,” a KGO-TV reporter tweeted from the scene along with video from the ensuing panic as people started running.

The curtailed parade did not dampen the spirits of a jubilant day, the first San Francisco Pride Parade since the coronavirus pandemic sidelined in-person crowd festivities in 2020.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Pride,” Cammie Haas of San Carlos told KNTV. “I am also gay, so this is really exciting for me.”

People flocked to the Civic Center area, with hundreds of thousands of people lining Market Street, some of whome had driven for hours or flown in from out of town from as far away as Mexico.

“We’re supporting our son Izzy,” Jonathan Hurtado of Ontario, California, told KNTV. “We’ve been to several Pride [events] before but never what’s considered the mecca of the Pride festivals in San Francisco.”

After police dispersed the crowd, they kept a heavy presence in the area to continue investigating, KRON-TV reported.