Three remain critical from show injuries

HOUSTON — Three concertgoers remain in critical condition following a massive crowd surge during a Travis Scott performance that left eight people dead and hundreds more injured at the Astroworld music festival, Houston’s mayor said Wednesday.

Mayor Sylvester Turner did not provide details about the conditions of the fans who have been hospitalized since the rapper’s headliner performance Friday night. But the family of a 9-year-old boy who attended the concert with his father has said the child is in a medically induced coma after sustaining injuries to his heart, lungs and brain.

Authorities have launched a criminal investigation, but Turner told city councilmembers during their weekly meeting that it could take some time to determine what caused the deaths at the sold-out festival, which drew some 50,000 attendees.

“How did this happen? That is a question that remains on all of our minds,” Turner said. “How did this happen? Where were the missteps? Where were the failures? Where were the gaps? We owe it to the family members, all of those who attended and quite frankly the city as a whole, to the first responders, all of them, how did this happen?”

Turner read the names of the eight people who died before pausing the meeting for a moment of silence. The victims were between the ages of 14 and 27 and came from Texas, Illinois and Washington state, according to authorities.

The festival grounds and stage where Scott performed have yet to be disassembled as authorities and attorneys representing the injured and their families continued combing the area.