Others attempted to determine what the officers were responding to.
A few offered explanations based purely on what could be seen in the photographs.
But without verified information, many of those theories remained exactly that — theories.
This is one of the most complicated aspects of modern viral stories.
An image can be completely genuine while the story surrounding it is incomplete.
A photograph may accurately show police officers responding to something, yet tell viewers almost nothing about what happened before the camera was raised or what happened afterward.
That distinction became particularly important as curiosity surrounding the incident continued to build.
For those actually present, the atmosphere was reportedly very different from the one created online.
Bystanders were not necessarily witnessing some dramatic event unfolding exactly as social media portrayed it.
Many were simply people who happened to be nearby when something unexpected occurred.
And, naturally, some recorded what they could.
Police officers, meanwhile, had a much more practical responsibility.
Rather than trying to understand the incident through the lens of social media, officers needed to establish what had happened, determine whether anyone was at risk, and bring the situation under control.
From the outside, however, a police response can create the impression that something enormous is happening.
