Rapper Travis Scott will not face criminal charges in deadly crowd crush at Texas festival

Rapper Travis Scott will not face a criminal charge in connection with a deadly crowd crush at his Astroworld festival, in 2021.

A nine and 14-year-old were among ten people who were killed at the Texas music festival as the crowd surged toward the stage during Scott's performance, on November, 5, 2021.

The official cause of death was compression asphyxia, which an expert likened to being crushed by a car.

Roughly 300 people were injured and treated at the scene, and 25 were taken to hospitals.

Following Thursday's court hearing, Lawyer Kent Schaffer confirmed the Harris County grand jury decided Scott was not guilty of any criminal charges stemming from the concert.

“He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt,” Mr Schaffer said, adding that the decision is “a great relief.”

Due to the circumstances of the deaths, the only charge prosecutors could bring against Scott was possible counts of endangering a child in connection with the deaths of the two youngest concertgoers, ages 9 and 14.

Schaffer said he feels sympathy for those who were killed at the festival and their families.

“But Travis is not responsible ... bringing criminal charges against him will not ease their pain,” he said.

The jury also found five other people involved in the festival not guilty, including the event's manager Brent Silberstein. A lawyer for Silberstein did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. More than 500 lawsuits were filed over the deaths and injuries at the concert, including many against Live Nation and Scott. Some have since been settled.

Houston police and federal officials have been investigating whether Scott, concert promoter Live Nation and others had sufficient safety measures in place.

Police Chief Troy Finner declined to say what the overall conclusion of his agency's investigation was or whether police should have stopped the concert sooner.

Finner said police plan to make the more than 1,000-page report in the case public so people can read all the information investigators reviewed.

“The chief of police is not going to get up here and point fingers at anybody. I respect the grand jury’s decision. I simply want people to read (the offense report), read the entire investigation and everybody will see, very, very complicated,” Finner said.

Speaking after the incident, in 2021, Scott called the disaster “a tragedy on many different levels”.

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