ST. LOUIS — St. Louis-area cheerleaders are back home and safe after a chaotic cheer competition in Dallas over the weekend.

It all started with rumors of an active shooter at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, but police report it was actually a fight that broke out, which caused confusion and then panic.

Dallas police said no arrests have been made.

Saturday afternoon, it went from fun to frantic at the three-day cheer competition as hundreds searched for safety.

The National Cheerleaders Association All-Star National Championship in Dallas welcomed more than 58,000 people, including multiple athletes from the St. Louis region.

Dallas police said a fight between two people led to multiple poles getting knocked down. The loud crash caused mayhem as people mistook the sound for gunshots.

Jefferson County mom, Alyssa Boyer, was there with her daughters. 

She described the sounds: “It sounded like a pop pop, pop! And everyone that was downstairs on that second level, started running up the stairs and the escalators that were even going down, they were just coming up the stairs, running towards us.”

Boyer said one of her daughters got separated from her. That’s when she grabbed her phone and called her eldest, warning them to not come in.

“Everyone ran into the ballrooms and they barricaded us for 40 minutes,” Boyer said. 

They were eventually taken out back to the garage, when someone said there was a bomb. 

Boyer said that’s when they took off running for about two miles. 

Boyer’s daughter, Mila, cheers with 9-year-old Stella Meyer from St. Charles County.

Stella and her mom, Rachel Meyer, were outside when the first wave of people came out. 

“The only way I can explain it is when Scar took Simba to the gorge and started the stampede and the people just piled out,” Meyer explained.

Rachel told 5 On Your Side, once they heard there was a possible shooter, the two took cover behind a landscaping wall.

“Then somebody said they thought there was a bomb, so I looked at Stella, and I grabbed her hand, and I said, you need to trust me, we’re running and we’re going to be OK,” Meyer recalled. 

“I guess the second wave of people came out that had to have been in the convention center, I would assume, and they were coming around the same building. We were coming around, but the opposite side. They were yelling that there was a shooter, and I looked at Stella, and I said, all right, we got to go the other way, and we went to turn around, and that’s when I was pushed and I had no time to react. I still had Stella’s hand, and I just went face-first into the concrete,” a teary-eyed Rachel said. 

She broke her nose and was sent to the hospital.

She said a woman from Virginia, who happened to be a nurse, saw her fall and immediately helped. Meyer called her an “angel.”

“She grabbed me, and she said, ‘We have got to get you medical attention, you are bleeding,'” added Rachel. 

Rachel’s husband Zak Meyer reached out to 5 On Your Side expressing his love for his wife and daughter. He said he couldn’t be more proud of their bravery and said he could not be more relieved to have them back home safe.

“I cannot believe that all of those babies had to experience that,” said Rachel.

Rachel acknowledges active-shooter trainings at school prepared her daughter.

“In the moment, my daughter was ready to go, she knew exactly what to do. She was calm. She held her composure,” shared Rachel. 

René Scurlock and 13-year-old Adalyn Scurlock from Jefferson County also ran for cover. 

Adalyn remembers her coaches barricading the team and huddling around the cheerleaders. 

That’s when she heard that they needed to run. 

Adalyn was one of the first people out. She, along with the other girls her age, tried to remain calm as a group younger teammates followed their lead.”People are screaming, crying. They don’t know where their mom is. You got moms yelling kids’ names,” added René. “People are under semi-trucks. People are jumping in random people’s cars trying to get out.”

In a moment of madness, 13-year-old Adalyn showed another side of humanity.

In a sport involving lifting others up, Adalyn showed this by trying to protect younger teammates.

“They really do look up to us, because they just came running to all the big ones (teammates) asking for help,” Adalyn said.