Astroworld Festival: Authorities are investigating the causes behind a deadly crowd surge at the music festival in Houston
The Friday evening crowd on the sold-out Astroworld Competition, headlined and arranged by rapper Travis Scott, was so tightly packed that when viewers members had been pushed towards the stage, some advised CNN that they had been crushed to the purpose the place they could not breathe and handed out.
One safety officer was struck within the neck in the course of the live performance whereas attempting to restrain an viewers member.
“When he was examined, he went unconscious. They administered Narcan,” Houston Police Chief Troy Finner mentioned Saturday of the safety officer. “He was revived, and the medical employees did discover a prick just like what you’d get if any person was attempting to inject. That’s one a part of it.”
There have been a number of different incidents Friday the place the drug was administered, Houston Hearth Chief Sam Peña mentioned.
Narcan is a drug used to deal with narcotic overdoses.
Different makes an attempt to save lots of lives included some folks administering CPR. Former Marine Lucas Naccarati mentioned he carried out CPR on two individuals who handed out.
“That was a special world. I instantly thought, ‘This isn’t OK. Somebody goes to die right here,” he advised CNN. “I’ve by no means seen a mass quantity of our bodies dropping that quick earlier than.”
The victims who died embody a 14-year-old
“The group for no matter cause started to push and surge in the direction of the entrance of the stage, which precipitated the folks within the entrance to be compressed — they had been unable to flee that scenario,” Peña advised CNN.
The chaos despatched at the very least 25 folks to the hospital, and 13 of them remained there Saturday afternoon, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner mentioned. 5 of them are below the age of 18, he mentioned.
The ages of the victims who died ranged from 14 to 27, and the age of 1 one that was killed stays unknown, Turner mentioned.
The causes of their deaths are pending the health worker’s willpower, Peña mentioned.
Officers mentioned they may assessment video from the scene and assess how the venue was laid out as a part of the investigation into the tragedy .
The investigation will cowl “what precipitated, one, the problem of the group surge, and two, what prevented folks from with the ability to escape that scenario,” Peña mentioned Saturday.
“We’re definitely taking a look at all the video footage, we’re speaking to witnesses, we’re speaking to occasion organizers,” Turner advised CNN on Saturday.
On Saturday, Scott posted on his Instagram account’s story that he is sending out prayers to the lives misplaced, including that he is been working with Houston authorities.
“I am truthfully simply devastated,” Scott mentioned as he repeatedly sighed and rubbed his brow. “We’re truly working proper now to determine the households so we will help help them via this robust time.”
‘Like we had been drowning in a pool stuffed of simply folks’
Sarai Sierra, who went to the competition to have a good time her birthday, mentioned she noticed a number of individuals who couldn’t breathe after Scott appeared on stage.
“I really thought that if I fell it could’ve been the top of me. I spent at the very least quarter-hour simply getting pushed round as a result of mosh pits or just because folks had been ‘raging,'” Sierra mentioned.
Sierra, who attended the competition with family and friends, added that she noticed about 20 individuals who couldn’t breathe, together with one one that suffered a seizure earlier than her eyes.
“It felt like we had been drowning in a pool stuffed of simply folks,” she mentioned.
Nick Johnson and Angel Rodriguez, who additionally went to the competition, mentioned a crowded environment constructed up over an prolonged time frame.
“It was occurring for over two hours,” Johnson mentioned. “It simply bought worse and worse, everybody’s like, you simply cannot breathe, you simply really feel like there is a weighted blanket on you.”
And as soon as folks had been pushed towards the stage, respiration bought more difficult, Rodriguez defined.
“While you get pushed again, folks at all times fall over,” Rodriguez mentioned.
Officers ramped up safety after the 2019 trampling incident, gearing 528 Houston law enforcement officials on the live performance and an extra 755 personal safety personnel, the police chief mentioned.
CNN’s Keith Allen, Holly Yan, Gregory Lemos, Melissa Alonso, Maya Brown, Jenn Selva, Andy Rose, Artemis Moshtaghian, Jason Hanna and Claudia Dominguez contributed to this report.
