By Ziyad Benhaddad
Ezra Blount, a 9-year-old who had been in a medically induced coma, died on Sunday from the injuries sustained during the festival. Reportedly Ezra suffered injuries to the brain, lungs and heart after being compressed during the concert. It brings the death total to 10 with over 100 people injured. People appeared to have been walked over during the event, authorities suggest.
The Astroworld festival reportedly had over 50 000 people at the concert, which caused a large crowd to push towards the front of the stage during the performance of Travis Scott. Houston Police Department chief Troy Finner said on Saturday, “This is now a criminal investigation that’s going to involve our homicide division, as well as narcotics, and we’re going to get down to the bottom of it.” Rumors came out that people were stung with needles during the concert, which could be the reason for the narcotics department to be involved. The Astroworld disaster is being compared to the 1979 Cincinnati concert tragedy, where 11 people died for similar reason to see the Who at the Riverfront Coliseum.
Courtesy : People
Some security guards, who were in charge of potential disruptions, felt that they were understaffed and not prepared for the event. A lot of the security staff were hired via text with an hourly wage of 17$ and no id was needed for the hiring process. The city’s mayor, Sylvester Turner refuted the claim about being understaffed, “We had more security over there than we had at the World Series games.” He added that the event took place on county property and that security was organized by the city of Houston.
Live Nation stopped the concert 30 minutes earlier than usual, Finner said that officials were worried about making the situations worse by ending the concert quickly. It isn’t the first time that Astroworld has been the subject of crowd problems, in 2019 a rush outside the festival left three people injured. Close to 36 lawsuits have been filed against Travis Scott in the wake of this tragedy. Drake has also been included in some, he was surprise guest performer at the festival. One lawsuit in particular accuses Drake and Travis Scott of inciting the crowd even when it was out of control. Houston officials promised to provide answers. “This is a very, very active investigation, and we will probably be at it for quite some time to determine what exactly happened,” said the Houston mayor.
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