Couple sues rapper after loss of unborn child
Family of UD student killed at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival also files lawsuit.
— A Dayton couple filed a wrongful death lawsuit after losing their unborn child following last fall’s Astroworld music festival in Houston, where 10 people died and thousands were injured after the crowd rushed the stage.
Shanazia Williamson and Jarawd Owens of Dayton filed a lawsuit, demanding a trial by jury and seeking damages of more than $1 million against rapper Travis Scott, promoters Live Nation and ScoreMore, and security companies Valle Services SMG, ASM Global in Harris County District Court. A judge on Friday dismissed Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. from the lawsuit.
The night of Nov. 5, 2021, eight people were killed in a stampede that started around 9:15 p.m. during Scott’s annual festival at NRG Park. It was declared a mass casualty event by 9:38 p.m. but Scott’s performance did not end until around 10:10 p.m., according to media reports. Two other people later died of their injuries.
The lawsuit called the concert “a horrible — yet preventable — tragedy” during the first night of the two-day event that drew more than 50,000 attendees. The rest of the festival was canceled following the deadly crowd surge.
Williamson “was trampled and crushed resulting in horrific injuries and ultimately the death of her and Jarawd’s unborn child” and caused injuries to her shoulder, back, chest, leg, stomach and other parts of her body, according to the lawsuit.
The suit — initially filed in November but amended in December — cites the defendants’ “failure to plan, design, manage, operate, staff and supervise the event” as a direct and proximate cause of Williamson’s injuries and death of their unborn child.
University of Dayton student Franco Patino, 21, of Naperville, Illinois, died the night of the stampede along with his best friend Jacob Jurinek.
Patino’s parents, Julio and Teresita Patino, also filed a lawsuit in November against the rapper, promoters and security firms, seeking more than $1 million in damages and demanding a jury trial. Their son “suffered devastating and fatal injuries” when he was “kicked, stepped on, trampled and crushed” during the crowd surge, the suit stated.
His friends, family and the university are collaborating to create a scholarship for multi-ethnic students in memory of Patino, who was a member of Alpha Psi Lambda, president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and was working an engineering co-op program at AtriCure Inc. in Mason.
A document filed Monday in Harris County revealed that more than 700 attendees who sued after the festival reported they suffered injuries that required “extensive” medical treatment. Also, more than 4,900 claimed they suffered some form of injury, Rolling Stone reported Thursday.
Scott has denied responsibility and offered to pay for funeral costs of the victims who died.
He performed publicly May 8 at a Miami nightclub for the first time since the November Astroworld tragedy, Rolling Stone reported.