Before the tragic Astroworld Festival, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner reportedly visited Travis Scott in his trailer to express his concerns about the crowd.
According to a source familiar with Finner’s account, the chief informed the rapper that a large crowd had gathered for the Friday event at NRG Park. Due to the ongoing investigation into the incident, a police spokesman declined to comment to the publication about the chief’s claim.
At least three concertgoers are suing Scott and the event’s promoters, Live Nation and ScoreMore, for the“predictable and preventable tragedy.” following Finner’s concerns. A number of additional lawsuits are anticipated.
“Defendants failed to properly prepare and conduct the performance in a safe way,” according to documents filed Saturday in Harris County District Court by lawyers for Manuel Souza, who claims he was hurt in the chaos.
According to Billboard, the lawsuit says that the night was chaotic from the beginning, when impatient fans “breached a security gate around the park, stampeded into the premises, and trampled over one another” just to get inside the sold-out show.
Scott has a history of pushing supporters to disregard security and violently storm the stage, which has resulted in him being arrested and sued twice before.
The New York Times said that the performance didn’t end until over 40 minutes after officials declared a “mass casualty event,” according to a police timeline.
According to Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pea, the star and the concert organizers should have intervened earlier to bring the show to a close.
Peña told the paper in a telephone interview Sunday, “The one person who can really call for and get a tactical pause when something goes wrong is that performer. They have that bully pulpit and they have a responsibility.”
He added, “If somebody would have said, ‘Hey, shut this thing down and turn on the lights until this thing gets corrected’ — and that coming from the person with the mic — I think could have been very helpful.”
In an Instagram statement, Scott admitted that he had no idea how bad things had gotten in the crowd.
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