Travis Scott not criminally liable for Astroworld Festival deaths, grand jury finds

A grand jury decided not to charge rapper Travis Scott for the deaths of ten people during his show at the Astroworld music festival in Houston in 2021, the Harris County District Attorney’s office said Thursday.

The Harris County grand jury didn’t find enough evidence to criminally charge Scott or others connected to the concert with a role in the deaths, CBS affiliate KHOU reported. 

The “mass casualty incident” occurred after 9 p.m. at Scott’s show on Nov. 6, 2021, when a crowd began to “compress” toward the front of the stage, “and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said at a news conference the day after the tragedy. 

The concert was divided into quadrants, and all 10 deaths occurred due to overpopulation and compaction within a single quadrant, Houston police officials said at a news conference Thursday.  

“This was not a crowd stampede. This was not a stage rush. This was not a crowd surge. This was a slow compaction or constriction into this quadrant resulting in collapsing within the crowd,” Detective Mike Barrow said.

The jury’s conclusion came after a 19-month investigation by the Houston Police Department that involved digital evidence, witness statements and chronology reports, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.

The police’s full report will be released to the public, although officials did not specify when.

According to Christopher Downey, a lawyer representing Astroworld Festival manager Brent Silberstein, the charges were brought against Silberstein and five others for their role in the incident.

“The grand jury found today that there were no probable charges against Brent Silberstein, or any of the other five people being considered for indictment, including Travis Scott,” Downey said on Thursday.

“This has been two long years for Brent Silberstein. It’s been an enormously stressful time and we were ready to defend against any criminal charges,” Downey said.

In an interview a few days after the incident, Houston’s fire chief said Travis Scott and the organizers of the Astroworld music festival should have stopped the event when they realized members of the crowd were in danger.

“Absolutely. Look: We all have a responsibility. Everybody at that event has a responsibility. Starting from the artist on down,” Peña told NBC’s “Today” show.

“The artist, if he notices something that’s going on, he can certainly pause that performance, turn on the lights and say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to continue until this thing is resolved,’ Pena added. “That’s one way to do it, yes.”

The tragedy occurred on the first night of the third installment of the festival, with more than 50,000 concertgoers in attendance. As Scott performed, the crowd pushed toward the front of the stage, causing panic and resulting in hundreds of injuries. Twenty-five people were rushed to local hospitals, 11 of whom suffered cardiac arrest, according to police.

In a conversation with radio host Charlamagne Tha God in Dec. 2021, Scott said he didn’t realize a mass casualty event was unfolding.

“I didn’t even know the exact detail until minutes before the press conference,” Scott said. “At that moment, you’re kinda just like, what? You just went through something and it’s like, what? The thing Is — people pass out. Things happen at concerts. But something like that?”

Scott said organizers told him through his earpiece they were going to stop the show after the guest finished his set but did not tell him why they were stopping. “They just told me that right after the guest gets off stage, you know, we’re gonna end the show,” Scott said. “And that’s what we did. Now, other than that, there was no other communication.”