By Eve Buckland and Alesia Stanford For Dailymail.Com
23:51 31 Jul 2023, updated 00:14 01 Aug 2023
- 10 people, ranging in age from nine to 27, died after being crushed in the crowd of 50,000 at the concert at NRG stadium November 5, 2021
- More than a dozen people were hospitalized, and some 300 were treated for injuries at the scene
- Ezra Blount, nine, died 10 days after he incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being ‘kicked, stepped on, and trampled’
Travis Scott and his legal team have been slammed by a lawyer acting for the family of a 9-year-old killed in the Astroworld tragedy – after they claimed a police report was intentionally released to hurt the rapper’s Utopia album sales.
The Houston Police Department released their report into the 2021 Astroworld Festival tragedy on July 28, the same date Utopia dropped – which the 32-year-old’s attorney Kent Schaeffer claimed was a deliberate move to sabotage the star.
10 people, ranging in age from nine to 27, died after being crushed in the crowd of 50,000 at the concert at NRG stadium November 5, 2021. More than a dozen people were hospitalized, and some 300 were treated for injuries at the scene.
Attorney Bob Hilliard, representing the family of the late Ezra Blount, who died aged nine in the tragedy, blasted the ‘stunningly tone deaf’ remarks in a new statement.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘For an artist making his living with music, these are stunningly tone deaf comments about this preventable tragedy that took so many lives and injured so many.
‘This extremely detailed and damning report confirms both the negligence and extreme gross negligence of those involved, including the Travis Scott team.
‘For Mr. Scott to allow his lawyers and spokespeople to make the reckless and untrue statement that just because he was not indicted means he’s blame-free is arrogant and insulting to the memory of 10 year old Ezra as well as the other victims of this terrible night.
‘Of course they would only focus on how the report’s release date hurts their album sales instead of the facts contained inside of the report, including this quote: “Pull tons over the rail unconscious. There’s panic in people eyes. This could get worse quickly,” Reece Wheeler texted Shawna Boardman, one of the private security directors, at 9 p.m.
‘Wheeler then texted, “I know they’ll try to fight through it but I would want it on the record that I didn’t advise this to continue. Someone’s going to end up dead.’ “
Ezra, of Dallas, Texas, was sitting on his father’s shoulders when the countdown to Scott’s performance began at NRG Park on November 5.
The pair stayed near the back of the crowd because his father, Treston Blount, thought it would be calmer, he previously told ABC 13. But as soon as Scott took the stage, Treston said, people started pushing.
He lost consciousness and Ezra fell to the ground, and was soon trampled on by eager concert-goers. Ezra incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being ‘kicked, stepped on, and trampled, and nearly crushed to death.
He was declared dead 10 days after he was put in a medically-induced coma.
Last week Schaeffer told TMZ he believed HPD had a two-fold mission in releasing the 1,266 page report on the same day as the Utopia release – to hurt Utopia album sales and to take the heat off of law enforcement for not holding Travis criminally accountable.
A rep for Travis also told TMZ: ‘The timing of the Houston Police Department report’s release, coinciding with the launch of Travis Scott’s highly anticipated album, is anything but coincidental.’
‘Travis Scott and his team were, as anticipated, fully cleared of any wrongdoing associated with the Astroworld tragedy by a grand jury based on the very report released today,’ they continued. ‘It is outrageous that HPD has chosen to resort to tactics that attempt to discredit Travis and his team, casting doubt on how the unfortunate events at Astroworld.’
The rep pointed out that ‘Travis’s commitment to his audience’s safety and well-being is well-documented’ and claimed that ‘he actively stopped the show three separate times.’
‘We encourage the Houston PD to make peace with the fact that Travis Scott and his team were found innocent of any wrongdoing and to focus on what really matters – making sure tragedies like Astroworld never occur again under their watch, the rep concluded.
Utopia is the first LP Travis has released since the incident. The police say the timing was unintentional.
According to the outlet, the rapper’s legal team is pushing back on some allegations in the report.
One of those comes from a security guard who claimed he tried to get the Butterfly Effect artist’s team to call off the show during Drake’s performance, but was told Drake had to finish the set.
Schaeffer said the injuries occurred before Drake took the stage but no one brought it to Travis’ attention.
He also claimed the police could have stopped the concert sooner than they did.
According to the report, Travis told investigators he was told to stop the show after Drake’s set, and his attorney said he followed all their instructions.
A 56-page event operations plan had been put together before the festival began.
It included detailed protocols for various dangerous scenarios including a shooting, bomb or terrorist threats and severe weather.
It did not include information on what to do in the event of a crowd surge
A grand jury refused to indict the Down in Atlanta rapper in June.
‘Everything was presented to the grand jury, and they found there was no criminal liability on Travis’ part,’ Kent Schaffer said at a news conference.
‘He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt.’
More than 500 lawsuits have been filed since the tragedy, including some aimed at Travis and Live Nation, the concert promoter.
Families of two of those who died have already settled out of court.