12 Houston’s Nightmare

Travis Scott headlined the Astroworld Festival in Houston on November 5 after two years of it being held back because of the pandemic. The festival started well and people were having the time of their lives but tragedy struck after people in the crowd started to get injured and some even died.

Eight people were confirmed dead that night alone and days after other victims were pronounced dead including a 9-year-old and a Texas A&M University student, bringing the total to 10 losses. Twenty-five people were hospitalized.

Local 23-year-old Rodolfo “Rudy” Peña was one of the initial eight victims who tragically died after many people rushed to the stage of the concert and “compressed” themselves forward.

In videos posted on social media, it shows that staff and Scott himself ignored the situations where people were getting evacuated to ambulances and fans screaming for help.

Peña, a Nixon High School graduate, was laid to rest earlier last month.

Scott claims in his recent interview with radio personality Charlamagne tha God that he didn’t hear the cries of help within the crowd.

“Nah man you know it’s so crazy I am that artist, too. Like you know anytime you can hear something like that you want to stop the show to make sure that fans get the proper attention,” Scott said. “Anytime I could see anything like that I did, you know, and I stopped it a couple of times to just make sure everybody was okay. I just really just go off the fans’ energy as a collective and I just didn’t hear that.”

After the Astroworld tragedy, Scott lost support from fans and also from his hometown Houston.

Recently, Scott was pulled out of one of the most important music festivals in the country. Coachella has removed him from the lineup after a petition with 60,000 signatures asked to remove him.

Additionally, Scott’s hard seltzer brand Cacti has been pulled from shelves indefinitely following the incident.

Scott has denied all claims that he was responsible for the 10 deaths and over 300 injuries sustained at the festival. After the astroworld festival, Scott made an apology in an Instagram video saying that his fans mean the world to him and that he’s trying to help out, while denying all the claims made.

“You know my fans really mean the world to me and I always just want to leave them with a positive experience and any time that i could make out anything that’s going on i stop the show and help them get the help they need,” Scott said. “I could just never imagine the severity of the situation. We’ve been working closely with everyone to get to the bottom of this.”

Scott added that he was devastated and couldn’t imagine anything tragic happening at his show.

Over 275 lawsuits were filed. Scott is being sued for over $750 million dollars and on Dec. 6, via his attorneys, Scott has requested to be dismissed from the laawsuits naming him.

This story is developing.

HOUSTON’S NIGHTMARE

By Luis Sanchez

IN MEMORIAM:

Mirza Baig, 27, Houston Rodolfo Peña, 23, Laredo Madison Dubiski, 23, Cypress Franco Patiño, 21, Illinois Jacob Jurinke, 20, Illinois John Hilgert, 14, Houston Axel Acosta Avila, 21, Washington Brianna Rodriguez, 16, Houston Ezra Blount, 9, Denton Bharti Shahani,22, Houston