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Rapper Travis Scott may possibly face criminal charges for the deadly crowd crush at his Astroworld festival in November 2021.
The incident killed 10 people and left thousands injured.
Scott and several others are involved in the criminal probe of the tragedy, which went to a grand jury in Houston, according to Reuters.
Scott’s lawyer Kent Schaffer told the outlet he expected the decision would be coming down on Thursday.
“Nothing Travis did or failed to do fits within the Texas criminal code,” Schaffer said to the publication.
It’s unclear how long the grand jury had been meeting and what exactly the charges will be.
On Nov. 5, 2021, a fatal crowd crush took place at the festival founded by Scott, who is from Houston. The crush was caused by the crowd pushing towards the stage once Scott’s performance started. As the crowd pressed forward, it caused a crush near the stage as the event was over-capacity. This occurred at Houston’s NRG Park stadium complex.
From this, ten people died from asphyxia. Those who died ranged from 9 to 27 years old. They were among the 50,000 who attended the festival.
More than 500 lawsuits were filed against Scott, Live Nation and Scoremore, the festival’s promoters. The lawsuits consisted of thousands of plaintiffs who claimed that the festival was ill-equipped to handle the large crowd. They also cited a lack of security and just poor planning.
Rolling Stone pointed out that it’s been 19 months since the festival and no one has been criminally charged.
The families of two people who died settled wrongful death lawsuits in October of 2022.
Reuters reported that the cases have been consolidated in Texas state court. That process is known as multidistrict litigation, which streamlines the adjudication of similar lawsuits.
There are lawsuits that are still pending, like the case brought on by the family of the deceased 9-year-old.
Attorney Robert Hilliard represents that family. He issued a statement on Thursday which was obtained by Reuters, which said “both criminal and civil accountability are critical to ensure that those responsible for the loss of innocent lives understand the permanent devastation they caused these families.”
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