Houston police releases long-awaited 1,200-page report on Travis Scott Astroworld disaster
The Houston Police Department has released its report into the 2021 Astroworld crowd-crush disaster that left 10 dead and hundreds injured.
The 1,266-page report is the most detailed look yet into the decision-making that allowed the show, headlined and co-promoted by rapper Travis Scott, to continue well after authorities declared a mass casualty event.
In HPD’s interviews with Scott, he told police that he did not recall being given any clear signals to stop his set.
“We asked if he at any point heard the crowd telling him to stop the show,” the report says. “He stated that if he had heard something like that he would have done something. The first time he realized something was wrong or rather that there was a problem was when he was on the lift and he noticed the person down near the stage who then received medical attention.”
“Normally if it was something drastic,” Scott told HPD, “someone would have to come hit the button or pull the plug.”
The report says that several witnesses recalled Scott being told through his in-ear monitors to stop the show, as there were “bodies on the ground.” Others said they alerted his live audio team to tell him stop the show, but were rebuffed.
HPD said that recordings of his in-ear monitor were too muddy to decipher.
Live Nation Middle East, which assured Travis Scott fans that his July 28 ‘Utopia’ show would go on despite controversy, canceled it due to construction issues.
In June, a Harris County, Texas, grand jury declined to pursue criminal charges against Scott or any individual in the Astroworld catastrophe. Many civil suits remain against Scott and Live Nation, the show’s promoter.
One significant passage of the HPD report recounts a conversation between an Astroworld security executive, Marty Wallgren, and members of the show’s live audio team. Wallgren recounted trying to alert Scott that they needed to tell him to stop the show, but the audio team allegedly refused.
“Marty stated again that the key rebuttal or argument against shutting down the show at 10 was that Drake still had three more songs or Drake has not yet completed his set. He repeatedly told them that he did not care how many songs Drake had left and that this situation was much bigger than Drake … He stated that both ‘Bizzy’ [audio engineer Bilal Joseph] and the other guy resisted the directions they were given and actively impeded the ability for anyone to stop the show at a time other than the one they desired.”
Houston Police also interviewed Drake, who took the stage during a chaotic portion of the set.
“We asked if he [Drake] ever heard from the crowd to stop the show. He stated that he did not hear that. He explained that the ear piece drowns out a lot of outside sound ... I asked him about the message that Travis Scott told us that he received which in summary asked him to end the show after the guest (Drake). He stated that he did not receive that message or was unaware of it.”
The report includes comprehensive interviews with survivors in the immediate aftermath of the event. One witness, Ayden Cruz, recounted the scene in the crowd.
“Ayden reported feeling his feet swept up off the floor and he fell down. Ayden said he felt like he was losing oxygen and he began to yell for help as he fell to the ground. Ayden said he turned to survival mode to get himself out from under people as he was getting stepped on and his feet began to hurt and he had to slip his shoes off to protect his feet from being crushed. Ayden reported he saw Brianna go down towards the ground then he heard her voice yelling ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!’”
The report also quotes an Astroworld camera operator, who says that a crane operator on site told the show’s production team, “There are dead bodies underneath the crane, people are getting hurt. Shut it down.”
Houston officials have yet to institute any comprehensive regulations around concert safety since the disaster.
The HPD report came on the same day that Scott released “Utopia,” his first LP since his 2018 “Astroworld” album.
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