Lawsuit filed against Travis Scott, Live Nation and Scoremore following Astroworld Festival tragedy
Manuel Souza, who’s being represented by the legislation agency Kherkher Garcia, “suffered critical bodily accidents when the uncontrolled crowd on the live performance knocked him to the bottom and trampled him,” in line with the lawsuit filed in Harris County, Texas.
“Defendants didn’t correctly plan and conduct the live performance in a protected method,” the lawsuit continued.
“As a substitute, they consciously ignored the acute dangers of hurt to concertgoers, and, in some instances actively inspired and fomented harmful behaviors. Their gross negligence induced Plaintiff critical accidents.”
A jury trial is most popular to find out the precise quantity of damages, in line with the lawsuit, however Souza is searching for “financial reduction of over $1,000,000.”
CNN has reached out to Scott, Stay Nation and Scoremore for touch upon the lawsuit.
“Heartbroken for these misplaced and impacted at Astroworld final night time,” Stay Nation, the corporate chargeable for organizing the Astroworld Pageant, stated in a press release. “We are going to proceed working to supply as a lot info and help as potential to the native authorities as they examine the state of affairs.”
The timeline of occasions on the night of the tragedy
Scott took the stage for his set shortly after 9 p.m. Officers stated they have been made conscious of crowd surges early in his set, and obtained the primary stories of accidents at roughly 9:30 p.m.
It’s unclear what Scott noticed from the stage and whether or not he was conscious of the group circumstances on the time, however he continued to carry out till roughly 10:10 p.m. That’s about 40 minutes after the primary stories of accidents have been made to officers and simply over half-hour after officers declared the live performance a “mass casualty occasion,” in line with occasions given by Houston Hearth Chief Samuel Peña at a information convention Saturday morning.
Video from the live performance’s livestream additionally confirmed Scott pausing his efficiency and searching on in obvious confusion as an ambulance pulled into the group. He started performing towards, however later stopped the live performance.
“I am actually simply devastated,” Scott stated as he repeatedly sighed and rubbed his brow. “We’re truly working proper now to establish the households so we may also help help them by means of this powerful time.”
Some concertgoers have criticized organizers for persevering with the present whilst unresponsive individuals have been being given CPR and carried away, however Scott indicated he was not conscious of how extreme issues had gotten. “Any time I may make out, you recognize, something that is occurring, you recognize, I simply stopped my present and, you recognize, helped them get the assistance they want.”
The lawsuit alleges, “Scott actively encourages his followers to ‘rage’ at his concert events. His categorical encouragement of violence has beforehand resulted in critical violence at quite a few previous concert events.”
It additionally cites a since-deleted tweet from Scott in response to fan complaints about this live performance’s fast sell-out: “WE STILL SNEAKING THE WILD ONES IN. !!!!!”
CNN’s Joe Sutton contributed to this report.