Violent crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival killed 8 spectators and left hundreds of others injured. Organizers of the event have been facing mounting questions including why the rapper and some of his followers kept the show going on while first responders were already dealing with mass casualties.
Injured concertgoers and families of the victims have filed at least 17 lawsuits against Scott, concert promoter Live Nation, organizer ScoreMore, and others, holding them accountable for the deadly stampede.
The investigation about the crime is going on and Scott is facing around 14 personal injury lawsuits, alleging gross negligence.
Who were the Astroworld Victims?
According to reports, the crowd of around 100,000 (in some reports, 50,000) went haywire shortly after the rapper came to the stage. Masses pushed towards the stage, crushing others in the process.
Victims ranging in age between 14 to 27 included John Hilgert (14), Brianna Rodriguez (16), Jacob Jurinek (20), Acosta Avila (21), Franco Patino (21), Madison Dubiski (23), Rodolfo Peña (23) and Mirza Danish Baig (27).
Most of them were students. Peña was an aspiring model, Baig died trying to save his fiancee from the violent crowd, Acosta and Patino were best friends, Rodriguez was just a teenage girl who loved to dance.
Travis Scott announced to bear the cost of memorial services for Astroworld victims.
The Show Carried on for Half an Hour after Casualties Started
The rapper received a lot of backlash on social media for not stopping the show when the security collapsed. According to the reports the people started dying around 9:39 PM and Scott finished around 10:15 PM.
It can be seen from the viral clips on social media that spectators were throwing others in the air. Even at that moment, the founder of Astroworld kept performing while one artist called for that inhumanity to stop.
According to the rapper, he was unaware of the situation but Instagram told a different story. It appeared that his girlfriend Kylie Jenner posted a story during the show where an ambulance was visible. The supermodel claimed after the show that she wasn’t aware of what was happening due to which she also faced backlash.
Even some followers of the rapper displayed a tone-deaf attitude and insensitivity towards the injuries and deaths.
Past Incidents of Travis Scott
Scott is often criticized for encouraging irrational behavior at his concerts. In 2015, he was charged with disorderly conduct after inciting the crowd to smash through a police barricade.
In 2017, he tried to convince a fan to jump from the venue’s second-story balcony. In that same concert, someone pushed a 27-year-old fan from the third-floor balcony who ended up paralyzed.
The backlash on Travis Scott kept on getting stronger because he had previously stopped a concert but not because of public safety, only because he lost his shoe. Someone from the crowd took his shoe and he incited others to “fuck him up” and it looked like they did.
Scott has responded on Instagram by saying that he was “devastated” by what happened at Astroworld. The rapper and organizers also announced to issue refunds to all those who attended the festival.
