HOUSTON — A Texas grand jury has declined to indict rapper Travis Scott in a criminal investigation into a massive crowd surge that killed 10 people at the 2021 Astroworld music festival in Houston, his attorney said Thursday.
Lawyer Kent Schaffer confirmed that the grand jury had met and decided not to indict his client on any criminal charges stemming from the concert. Schaffer said he was not sure what charges the grand jury had considered.
“He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt,” Schaffer said, adding that the decision is “a great relief.”
Houston police and federal officials have been investigating whether Scott, concert promoter Live Nation and others had sufficient safety measures in place.
Schaffer said he feels sympathy for those who were killed at the festival and their families.
“But Travis is not responsible,” Schaffer said. “Bringing criminal charges against him will not ease their pain.”
The Nov. 5, 2021, crowd surge killed 10 young festivalgoers who ranged in age from 9 to 27. The official cause of death was compression asphyxia, which an expert likened to being crushed by a car.
Roughly 300 people were injured and treated at the scene, and 25 were taken to hospitals.
A 56-page event operations plan for the festival had detailed protocols for various dangerous scenarios including a shooting, bomb or terrorist threats and severe weather. But it did not include information on what to do in the event of a crowd surge.
Similar crushes have happened all over the world, from a soccer stadium in England to the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia to Halloween festivities in the South Korean capital.
Most people who who die in crowd surges suffocate.
