“Kids were in a pit in the middle without protection. Then everybody rushed the pit and the poor little kids were crushed,” Diane Swanson, who brought her youngsters to the concert, told the San Bernardino Sun.

By some accounts the 14-year-old rapper’s performance was oversold. The venue’s capacity is 2,024 and more than 2,000 people reportedly attended the show.

Outside, more than 100 fans, some younger than 5 years old, endured 90-degree heat while standing in line for hours, then wept when they were turned away. Pandemonium ensued, the paper said.

However, the thousands who made it in didn’t see much of a show, either. Lil Bow Wow took to the stage around 4:30 p.m. but about 10 minutes later, concert security turned the house lights on and began carrying kids from the area in front of the stage to safety.

The pit area in front of the stage was reserved for younger children. However, when the concert started, older children flooded the area.

“We have a permanent wall that’s set up like a horseshoe around the stage. We kept it open for children of a certain height,” nightclub owner Tony Dellheim told Pollstar. “We didn’t allow the parents into the area because we didn’t want the parents to push the little kids [against the wall]. But these parents were a little different.”

“Parents were lifting their children over the wall and as security would stop them from one area, some of the older teens would jump over the wall in another,” he said.

The abruptly ended show apparently left dozens of kids, some as young as 8 years old, stranded in Gotham’s parking lot. Parents who dropped them off before the show thought the performance would end at 6 p.m.

Police Sgt. Ernie Lemos said the club should have been better prepared to serve the crowd, according to the Sun. He also attributed the large turnout to a rumor that children aged 6 and younger would be admitted free.

Club GM Robert Perez reportedly said the rumor was false. “Usually when we do concerts, we sell extra tickets” because not everyone always shows up, he told the paper. Lil Bow Wow tickets for this show were $12, he said.

Despite the complaints, Lemos said no major problems were reported other than upset parents, according to the paper. Paramedics said one person was treated for difficult breathing.

Three teen-agers suffered minor bumps, scrapes and bruises; two were treated at the scene and one was taken to a nearby hospital for examination.

The worst injury was a sprained ankle, according to Dellheim, who added that “in my opinion, [that] is not a bad job for that kind of concert,” referring to the club’s security.

He told Pollstar that security lined up in front of the raised stage and along the wall but that Lil Bow Wow’s own security detail would not go along with the setup and the rapper refused to take the stage until the venue changed its security plan.

“The police were on hand, the fire department was on hand, everything was under control until the time the concert started. Everybody wanted to get a piece of Lil Bow Wow. He played one-and-a-half songs and then his bodyguards took him off the right side of the stage. Then they all piled in to his limo and left.” The New West began refunding tickets the next day.

Despite the mayhem, Dellheim was impressed with the skyrocketing stature of Lil Bow Wow.

“It’s just like what the Beatles were like,” he said. “Kids had signs and posters and they all wanted to meet him. And if they didn’t get to meet him, they broke out into tears. It was amazing.”