Astroworld: nine-year-old boy dies, becoming 10th victim of festival crush
A nine-year-old Dallas boy has become the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston.
Ezra Blount died on Sunday at Texas children’s hospital in Houston, family attorney Ben Crump said. His death brought the toll from the crush to 10.
“Our city tonight prays for his mom, dad, grandparents, other family members and classmates at this time,” the Houston mayor, Sylvester Turner, said on Twitter. “They will need all of our support in the months and years to come.”
Ezra was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering serious injuries in the crush of fans during a performance by the festival founder and headliner, rapper Travis Scott, on 5 November.
Treston Blount, Ezra’s father, described what happened in a post on a GoFundMe page set up to help meet medical expenses. He said Ezra was sitting on his shoulders when the crowd crushed them. Treston Blount lost consciousness and when he came to, Ezra was missing.
A frantic search ensued until Ezra was found in a hospital, severely injured.
The young boy incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney and liver after being “kicked, stepped on and trampled and nearly crushed to death”, according to a lawsuit his family has filed against Scott and the event organizer, Live Nation, seeking at least $1m in damages.
“This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration,” Crump and his co-counsel said in a statement.
“Ezra’s death is absolutely heartbreaking. We are committed to seeking answers and justice for the Blount family. But tonight we stand in solidarity with the family, in grief and in prayer.”
Others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27 and have been remembered as promising young people whose lives were cut too short.
Danish Baig, 27, died trying to rescue his fiancee, who “survived but is bruised all over her body and is traumatized”, according to CNN.
Baig had planned to buy a house for his parents later this month. He was memorialized in Colleyville, Texas, on 7 November.
“To wake up and not be able to hear his voice, to touch him, to kiss him, to tell him how much we love him, it’s not going to happen any more,” Mirza Ammar Baig, his brother, told CNN. “And the way he left this world, it’s not just.”
Rodolfo “Rudy” Peña, 23, was buried in Laredo, Texas, on Friday. He was a college student and physical therapist whose “pride and joy” was playing varsity football in high school. According to his obituary, “The one attribute that stands out above all the rest was his contagious, warming, sincere smile.”
At a funeral on Saturday morning, friends and family said goodbye to Brianna Rodriguez, 16, a junior in high school who loved to dance.
“Dancing was her passion and now she’s dancing her way to heaven’s pearly gates,” said a GoFundMe post, which called Rodriguez “beautiful” and “vibrant”.
Some 300 people were treated at the festival site and 13 were hospitalised. Although the mass casualty event took place at night, warning signs – gate breaches, dangerous crowd behavior and injuries that required hospital transport – occurred throughout the day.
Houston police and fire department investigators are reviewing surveillance video provided by Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips people at the show shared on social media. Investigators planned to speak to Live Nation representatives, Scott and concertgoers. Scott and organizers are the focus of a criminal investigation.
Live Nation has said it “will help with hospital costs” and provide mental health counseling for those affected, CNN reported.
Questions persist about why Scott continued playing after problems in the crowd became evident. In a tweet posted the day after the crush, Scott said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place”. His lawyers have said he did not know about the tragedy unfolding in the crowd until after the show.
Scott has pledged to work “together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need”, including by covering funeral costs for the victims.