Houston Police Release Official Report With Travis Scott Interview On The Deadly AstroWorld Festival
Concert Tragedy
The Houston Police Department (HPD) have released the official police report on Travis Scott’s AstroWorld Festival concert, that details interviews from Travis Scott and other key witnesses and personnel.
We reported earlier that Travis will not be facing any criminal charges, but now we have some more insight into what informed that decision from the HPD.
Before the concert had even begun audience members were seen being crowd-surfed out of the mosh pit and dumped into the general crowd behind. “They looked like rag dolls” said, witness and concert coordinator, Reece Wheeler.
Before Scott took the stage Wheeler texted Shawna Boardman, the festival’s exterior manager of security, “There’s panic in people’s eyes,” he wrote, “This could get worse quickly.” Boardman agreed in her reply. As the concert went on he continued his message saying, “I would pull the plug but that’s just me. I know they’ll try to fight through but I would want it on the record that I didn’t advise this to continue. Someone’s going to end up dead”.
The crowd began to protest at the beginning at the concert, with some yelling up at Scott “Stop the Show!”.
Travis Scott first noticed the protest when he moved onto a platform (20-30 minutes into the performance). He told fans to back up to allow a medical vehicle into the area expressing his concern towards the injured fan he saw being attended to “make sure he good!”
Scott was told several times, through his ear piece, to stop the show, but, according to Scott, was not told why or that there was an emergency. He told the police, “Normally if it was something drastic, someone would have to come hit the button or pull the plug”.
Personnel reported that nobody had wanted to tell Travis Scott ‘no’, and working with him was “painful”.
The crane operator, George Hoffman, had told investigators that he had never seen anything like AstroWorld before. Most personnel were communication amongst each other. Hoffman radioed the production team saying, “There are dead bodies underneath the crane, people are getting hurt. Shut it down”
Apparently, security had “disappeared” from the front of the stage as the area was overrun by the audience and people were getting “crushed“.
Other personnel had ditched the concert completely; one saying “I don’t get paid enough for this, I am out of here”.
Travis Scott said he had not found out about the severity of the situation until he returned home hours later. Altogether 10 people died and dozens more were injured.
Scott is not totally out of the woods. Though he will not face criminal charges, he currently has several civil lawsuits pending.
Published by HOLR Magazine