On Friday (November 12), attorneys Ben Crump, Alex Hilliard, and John Duffy held a news conference in Houston’s Harris County Civil Courthouse to discuss the several cases filed against Travis Scott and Astroworld.
Crump claimed he is representing over 200 alleged victims, according to ABC13 Houston, who claim they suffered both physically and psychologically as a result of the Astroworld catastrophe, which killed nine people and wounded hundreds more. They’ve already filed 110 cases and expect to file another 90.
“We will make sure that they get justice because this should have never happened,” Crump said. “It is also about making sure Live Nation and anybody else who had anything to do with the failure here that caused people to lose their children. Nobody should ever die from going to a concert. In the future, safety must be paramount.”
Crump and Hilliard’s complaint joins at least 46 others filed in Texas alleging gross negligence. Prior to the altercation on November 5, Hilliard accused Live Nation of engaging in “criminal behavior.”
“We are talking about the largest organizer and promoter of festivals and concerts in the world,” Hilliard said. “And when that happens, a failure of epic proportions on this type of scale, it is criminal.”
Travis Scott has been chastised for continuing to play for 37 minutes while the tragedy unfolded in the 50,000-strong crowd. Uniqua Smith, 32, one of Crump’s clients, spoke during the briefing and described her harrowing experience.
“By the third or fourth song, I tried to make my way out of the crowd,” Smith said. “When I tapped on a woman to ask her to move, I noticed she was also having trouble breathing. The next thing I know, she was having a seizure and hit the ground.”
Crump feels that this was a “preventable” disaster that might have been avoided if security had done its job.
“Had people been focused on crowd control, had people been focused on safety provisions, focused on protocols,” Crump said. “We want the message to be loud and clear to Live Nation and everybody involved. We expect you to do better in the future, and we expect you to do right by everybody who is injured physically or psychologically at the Astroworld Festival.”
Bhari Shahani, 22, was the ninth victim and died on Wednesday (November 10) after being certified brain dead the day before. Mirza Baig, 27, Rodolfo Pea, 23, Madison Dubiski, 23, Franco Patio, 21, Jacob Jurinke, 20, John Hilgert, 14, Axel Acosta Avila, 21, and Brianna Rodriguez, 16, were the additional eight victims named by Harris County on Monday (November 8).
