A Houston grand jury said no criminal charges will be filed against musician Travis Scott for the Astroworld music festival tragedy.
About 10 people were killed with hundreds more injured during a fatal crowd crush at the Astroworld Festival in 2021, sparking accusations Travis Scott’s conduct helped to perpetuate the behavior that led to the tragedy, as Breitbart News reported.
After a 19-month investigation, the grand jury concluded the prosecution did not have enough evidence to charge Scott with a crime. He and several other Astroworld organizers have been cleared of all criminal wrongdoing.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said investigators had tracked down “every piece of relevant evidence” and reviewed “thousands and thousands of hours” of video before presenting the case to the grand jury.
Among the eight dead at the Travis Scott ‘Astroworld’ concert are a 14-year-old high school student and a 16-year-old girl. https://t.co/cLGUizpIzy
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 8, 2021
“Our job is narrow. It is to determine if this tragedy, this absolutely disastrous, horrific event, involved criminal activity by anyone,” Ogg said. “In this instance, the grand jury found that no crime did occur — that no single individual was criminally responsible.”
“What will happen in courts where they practice civil law, is not for us to determine,” she later added.
Scott’s lawyer, Kent Schaffer, praised the grand jury’s decision, arguing that it “confirms what we have known all along – that 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,” Schaffer told Billboard.
FLASHBACK: Houston Fire Chief Pena — Travis Scott ‘Absolutely’ Should Have Ended Concert When He Realized Fans Getting Hurt
“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 heartbreaking tragedies like Astroworld from ever occurring again,” he added.
The grand jury’s decision will have no impact on the many civil lawsuits that have been filed by the victims of the incident against Travis Scott and other Astroworld organizers.
Rapper Travis Scott’s lawyer says his client “did not know what was going on” at Astroworld Music Festival last week in Houston, Texas, where at least nine concertgoers were killed due to a crowd surge during his performance. https://t.co/NzUdW7Acp5
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 13, 2021
“Thousands of alleged victims have filed more than 400 civil lawsuits against Scott, Live Nation and other organizers, claiming they were legally negligent in how they planned and conducted the event, including by failing to provide adequate security and emergency support,” Billboard noted.
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed on Tubi, Google Play, YouTube Movies, or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.