A Texas grand jury has found that rapper Travis Scott is not criminally liable for the Astroworld Music Festival tragedy that left close to a dozen people dead in 2021.
According to TMZ, the decision was handed down on Thursday and confirmed by Scott’s team, who said that he will not face criminal charges over his involvement at the event in 2021.
The Astroworld Music Festival devolved into tragedy as 10 concertgoers died while 25 were hospitalized, and 300 others were treated for injuries that occurred due to a crowd surge as Scott performed.
Autopsies for the deceased revealed that they died from compression asphyxia due to the crowd surge.
Many had accused Scott of seeing people fainting and calling for help but refusing to stop his performance to render assistance.
However, his team says that the Harris County District Attorney confirmed that Scott isn’t criminally liable.
“Travis Scott is not responsible for the Astroworld tragedy. This is consistent with investigative reporting by numerous media outlets and federal and state government reports that have squarely placed the onus for event safety crises on organizers, operators, and contractors — not performers,” a statement from his team said.
TMZ reposted the statement, which added, “While waiting patiently for the District Attorney’s decision to not file charges, Travis Scott has been inaccurately and wrongly singled out, despite stopping the show three separate times and being unaware of the events as they were unfolding. Now that this chapter is closed, we hope for the government efforts to focus on what is most important – stopping future heart-breaking tragedies like Astroworld from ever occurring again.”
Scott is represented by attorney Kent Schaffer.
The Astroworld tragedy has loomed over Scott’s head as he disappeared after the event and has only been spotted out occasionally. He has also not performed at any large gathering since the incident.
But while he might be able to sleep a little better knowing he isn’t facing jail time, the rapper has a long way more to go as hundreds of persons have named him as a defendant in civil suits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is currently representing dozens of victims who are suing the rapper, Live Nation, the venue operators, security companies, and others for the tort of negligence.
