Travis Scott crowd surge death toll rises as college student injured at Astroworld dies
A 22-year-old college student who was critically injured in the crush of fans at the Astroworld festival in Houston has died, the family’s lawyer said on Thursday, bringing the death toll up to nine.
Bharti Shahani, who was set to graduate from Texas A&M University in the spring, died Wednesday night, attorney James Lassiter said during a news conference.
Bharti’s relatives described her as diligent in her electronics systems engineering studies and someone who always thought of others — including that she had signed up to donate her organs when she died.
"For the first time in her life she just wanted to have fun, and that was taken from her,” said Namrata Shahani, her sister, who attended the concert with Bharti and their cousin.
Namrata Shahani said her sister's last words to her were: “Are you OK?”
Her cousin, Mohit Bellani, attended the concert too. He said Shahani had two heart attacks on the way to the hospital. “Bharti was the glue of the family. She was the super glue of the family,” he said.
The concertgoers who died following the Friday night show were all between the ages of 14 and 27, underscoring how the tragedy unfolded in a mostly younger crowd.
A 9-year-old boy who was also injured at the sold-out festival of 50,000 people remained in a medically induced coma, according to his family whop have started legal proceedings against Scott.
Concertgoers have described the packed crowd growing dangerous even before headliner Travis Scott appeared on stage, and seeing people collapse while the rapper performed. Scott's attorneys have said he did not know about the deaths and injuries until after the show.
On Thursday, Scott's representatives said Scott is “distraught by the situation” and has been trying to connect with the affected families to share condolences and provide them aid.
Hundreds of people were injured in the intensifying surge. A criminal investigation into the deaths at Astroworld is underway, while some of the victims families are suing Travis Scott and Astroworld organisers.
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Scott was only minutes into his set when at least one Houston officer radioed over a police channel that the main stage had been compromised by a massive crowd surge. Recordings of police radio traffic, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, reveal how quickly law enforcement became aware of the rising danger in the throng of concertgoers shortly after the star rapper began performing at the sold-out music festival, which drew about 50,000 people. Scott took the stage in his hometown of Houston shortly after 9 pm.
"Looks like folks are coming out of the crowd complaining of difficulty breathing, crushing-type injuries,” one official said over the police radio around 9:21 pm, according to the audio obtained by the newspaper.
“Seems like the crowd is compressing on itself”.
Scott kept performing his set, which lasted about an hour. The newspaper reported that officers spotted people leaving the crowd but that their voices remained calm through the first half hour.
“I’m at the medical tent,” one officer radioed in around 9:30 pm, “There’s a lot of people trampled and they’re passed out at the front stage”.
Later, another officer says: "We’re getting multiple reports of people getting injured. We have another report of cardiac situation with CPR by the stage”.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said during a news conference Wednesday that police told organizers to shut down the performance when fans in the crowd were administered CPR.
Authorities gave word around 10:03pm that the concert was in the process of shutting down, but witnesses say Scott and Drake, the superstar rapper who came on toward the end of Scott's set as a special guest, kept performing.