Eight Dead at Travis Scott Concert [Update]

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Last Friday night ended with at least eight people dead and hundreds of others injured. Young people made up both the dead and the wounded.

The third-annual Astroworld festival was a two-day event, starting on Friday, November 5. The festival took place at NRG Park in Houston, Texas, and was sold out with about 50,000 people in attendance. It featured multiple musical acts like Drake and Roddy Ricch, who joined Travis Scott on stage.

The crowd surging during one of Scott’s performances is the prime blame for the incident. Houston officials held a press conference the following Saturday. The surge “caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” according to Houston police chief Samuel Peña.

One concertgoer named Nick Johnson told The New York Times that “It was like hell” when talking about his experience. “Everybody was just in the back, trying to rush to the front,” he added.

Travis Scott Response

Scott released a statement on Twitter, giving his “total support” to the Houston Police Department during the investigation. In addition, he sent his prayers to the families of the victims and all his fans that got injured.

Astroworld organizers canceled the second leg of the concert and promised to help local officials “however we can” in a comment on Instagram.

Twenty-three people were rushed to nearby hospitals, with another 300 people being tended to at a “field hospital,” according to Peña. He also confirmed that eleven people sent to hospitals suffered cardiac arrest. So far, the dead range from ages 14 to 27, and the injured include people as young as ten.

Many details surrounding the event are still unclear, particularly what caused the sudden surge forward by the crowd. An investigation by both the police and the fire department is underway.

UPDATE: Bharti Shahani, 22, died nearly a week after the tragic event. She had been on a ventilator in critical condition. Her sister said Astroworld was the first music festival the Texas A&M University had attended.

Moreover, a nine-year-old boy remains in a medically induced coma.

Written by Chiagozie Onyewuchi
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware

Source:

The New York Times: Crowd Surge at Travis Scott Concert Leaves at Least 8 Dead
CNN: Astroworld victim Bharti Shahani has died, bringing the death toll to 9; by Travis Caldwell, Jennifer Henderson, Chloe Melas, Gregory Lemos, Rosa Flores, and Amir Vera

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Inset Image Courtesy of Alan Paone’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License