Travis Scott won’t face prison fees in relation to the 2021 Astroworld live performance tragedy that resulted within the deaths of 10 attendees and lots of extra accidents.
A Texas grand jury declined to indict the rapper together with 5 different people over the NRG Park pageant live performance deaths, which occurred on account of crowd motion and panic and crushed or injured plenty of the Nov. 5 occasion’s estimated 50,000 attendees. “On this occasion, the grand jury of 228th District Court docket of Harris County discovered that no crime did happen, that no single particular person was criminally accountable,” stated Harris County District Lawyer Kim Ogg throughout a Thursday afternoon press convention.
Scott’s lawyer Kent Schaffer on Thursday issued this assertion: “Right this moment’s determination by the Harris County District Lawyer confirms what now we have recognized all alongside — that Travis Scott isn’t answerable for the AstroWorld tragedy. That is in keeping with investigative reporting by quite a few media retailers and federal and state authorities stories which have squarely positioned the onus for occasion security crises on organizers, operators and contractors — not performers. Whereas ready patiently for the District Lawyer’s determination to not file fees, Travis Scott has been inaccurately and wrongly singled out, regardless of stopping the present three separate occasions and being unaware of the occasions as they had been unfolding. Now that this chapter is closed, we hope for the federal government efforts to deal with what’s most necessary — stopping future heartbreaking tragedies like AstroWorld from ever occurring once more.”
The choice comes 18 months after native authorities responded to and commenced investigating the lethal incident. The Houston Police Division concluded its prison investigation into the tragedy final week earlier than presenting it to the Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace and, finally, the grand jury.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner and DA Ogg had been amongst those that spoke throughout a press convention concerning the determination to not indict Scott; pageant supervisor Brent Silverstein; senior director of worldwide safety operations for Dwell Nation John Janelle; Shawna Boardman and Seyth Boardman from the group administration firm Modern Companies Company; and Emily Ockenden with manufacturing firm BWG.
The deaths of these 10 people in the course of the live performance had been declared by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science to be attributable to compression asphyxia and had been dominated an accident. Ogg famous the DA’s workplace and investigators reviewed witnesses statements, time and chronology stories, and 1000’s of hours of digital proof, “in order that we might get to the center of the query.” Finner stated a 1,200-page report concerning the live performance tragedy will probably be made publicly out there.
In the course of the investigation, questions across the occasion’s crowd management and security preparedness arose. A 56-page occasion operations plan for the Astroworld music pageant had included protocols for harmful situations like energetic shooters and extreme climate, however not info on what to do within the occasion of a crowd surge.
Scott remains to be going through civil litigation from a whole lot of lawsuits filed towards him and the occasion’s organizers in relation to the live performance catastrophe. One case introduced by a 21-year-old who was crushed and killed was settled final yr, however the go well with from the household of a 9-year-old sufferer stays open. Robert C. Hilliard, an lawyer for the household advised GMA in an announcement on Thursday that “prison and civil accountability are vital to make sure that these answerable for the lack of harmless lives are made to not solely perceive the everlasting devastation they precipitated these households — however to point out the rule of legislation applies to the highly effective, to the nicely related.”
