Astroworld witness saw Kylie and Kendall Jenner ‘walk past bodies’ but Kylie says they ‘weren’t aware’
Travis Scott and Drake face a $1m lawsuit over the Astroworld stampede, as Kylie Jenner insists she and Scott “weren’t aware” of fatalities during the show. WARNING: Graphic
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Rappers Travis Scott and Drake have been slapped with a lawsuit over the deadly Astroworld Festival stampede.
Eight people ranging in age from 14 to 27 were killed during a crowd surge at Scott’s concert in Houston, Texas, on Friday. Another 300 suffered injuries.
According to multiple reports, 23-year-old Kristian Paredes from Austin, Texas, who attended the event is suing the artists, producer Live Nation and the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation of negligence.
The suit asks for more than a million dollars and claims the rappers “incited the crowd” into actions that left him “severely injured.”
Texas lawyer Thomas J. Henry filed the lawsuit Sunday, local time, according to Fox News.
Paredes reportedly filed the complaint seeking more than $1.35 million in damages after both rappers allegedly “incited the crowd” and left him injured.
It comes after Kylie Jenner responded to backlash about her boyfriend, Scott, continuing to perform and her posting to social media during the disaster.
She insists they “weren’t aware of any fatalities” until news came out after the show.
Jenner, who attended the concert with her three-year-old daughter Stormi, said the couple did not witness the mayhem on Friday.
“I want to make it clear that we weren’t aware of the fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing,” Jenner, 24, wrote in an Instagram story.
“I am sending my deepest condolences to the families during this difficult time and will be praying for the healing of everyone who has been impacted.”
Jenner, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, said that they were “broken and devastated” by the events.
JENNERS ‘WALKED PAST BODIES’: EYEWITNESS
It comes as an Astroworld festival attendee says they watched Kylie and Kendall Jenner “walk past bodies after hiding in an enclosed area” following the tragic stampede that resulted in injury and death.
According to a report in The Sun, Kylie, 24, and Kendall, 26, “walked past bodies as they were escorted out of the event”, an on-site insider has revealed.
The source recalled: “Kendall and Kylie each had 6 massive bodyguards with them.
“After everything went down, Kendall and Kylie were escorted out and walked past bodies and people getting CPR.”
The informant continued: “They kept their heads down and made sure no one saw their faces.
“They were doing everything so that no one would notice them and were covered up so no one could see their reaction.
“One guy got carted out in front of them. They were wearing masks and had their hoodies up.
“The area they were in was enclosed – where people had the family passes.”
But Kylie insists she and Kendall “weren’t aware” people had died until after the news broke.
She wrote in a statement: “Travis and I are broken and devastated.
“My thoughts and prayers are with all who lost their lives, were injured or affected in anyway by yesterday’s events.
“I want to make it clear we weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing.”
The pregnant mum-of-one sent her “deepest condolences” to all the families of those involved and “will be praying for the healing of everyone who has been impacted”.
She also expressed her concern for Travis, who “cares deeply for his fans and the Houston community”.
‘HORRIBLE PEOPLE’
It comes as tributes are flowing for the victims of the Astroworld festival deadly crowd crush as one devastated relative slammed the “horrible” organisers behind the event.
The eight victims killed during a crowd surge at rapper Travis Scott’s concert in Houston, Texas, ranged in age from 14 to 27.
Danish Baig, 27, was described as a “beautiful soul” after being killed while trying to save his sister-in-law during the stampede at the concert, his brother posted on Facebook.
“My brother was killed in this horrendous Astroworld event that was managed poorly and supervised by such horrible people,” Basil Baig wrote.
Basil Baig said people in the 50,000-plus concert crowd were “hitting”, “pushing” and “shoving” and “did not care for anyone’s life.”
He slammed superstar rapper Travis Scott for allegedly failing to halt the concert as the crowd got out of control.
At just 14, high-school student John Hilgret was the youngest person to die at the concert, which he attended with his best friend Robby Hendrix.
Hendrix’s mother, Tracy Faulkner, bought her son his ticket to the deadly concert for his birthday.
“Everything about that night was a tragedy,” Ms Faulkner told the Houston Chronicle.
“They were both in the same place at the same time and one came home and one we will never see.’
Brianna Rodriguez, 16, and Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Pena, 23 and university student Franco Patino, a huge fan of Travis Scott who had travelled from Southern Ohio to Houston for the event with his best friend, also died in the stampede.
The tragedy has turned into a criminal investigation after Houston’s Police Chief Troy Finner and Fire Chief Samuel Pena said “several – many” Narcan doses were given to revellers, suggesting multiple people may have been drugged in an attack.
Chief Finner said a security officer at the concert may have been injected with drugs by an unknown person at the time of the crowd surge.
“One of the narratives [going around] was that some individual was injecting other people with drugs. We do have a report of a security officer, according to the medical staff that treated him last night, that he was reaching over to restrain or grab a citizen and he felt a prick in his neck.”
He said the officer was revived with Narcan, a nasal spray used to treat suspected opioid overdoses, and medical staff “did notice a prick that was similar to what you would get if somebody was trying to inject”.
The horrific event, which saw eight people die among 50,000 concertgoers in Houston, Texas, was captured on video posted to social media, and fans were seen climbing onto the stage screaming: “Stop the show. There’s someone dead.”
Another person cried out: “People are f***ing dying, I want to save somebody’s life.”
A young man and a woman both approached a cameraman. His response is unclear as the music blared over the top.
Another video shows Scott singing on a podium as revellers were being attended to by Houston Police and paramedics.
In another video of the 75-minute event, which was streamed live on Apple Music, Scott is seen looking into the crowd and saying “What the f**k is that?”
Of the other seven people who perished, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said one was 16, two were 21, one was 23, one was 27, and one’s age remains unknown.
A child “as young as 10” was also injured in the tragedy.
Mr Turner said 25 were taken to hospital, of which five were under the age of 18, and 13 are still recovering there. Nobody has been reported missing.
“We’re not going to leave any stone unturned,” he said.
“We want to look at every single detail to determine what led up to it and what additional steps that need to take place to keep it from happening again, especially in this city.”
Scott did stop his show a few times and stopped several times when he spotted fans in distress near the stage. He reportedly asked security to make sure they were okay. Emergency vehicles, lights and alarms flashing, cut through the crowds several times.
Scott, who also performed with surprise guest Drake on stage, tweeted after the event that saying: “I am absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.”
His girlfriend Kylie Jenner, who also attended the event, copped further online backlash for posting a video of an ambulance tending to the injured and dead in the crowd as the chaos unfolded. Her sister Kendall was also at the concert.
It is unclear what Scott knew of the extent of the crowd crush before it occurred, as fans accused him of not doing enough to stop it.
The concert’s producer Live Nation Worldwide and Live Nation Entertainment are working with police sharing footage of the event as police work to identify victims and await the medical examiner’s investigation to determine a cause of death.
When the crowd started pushing toward the stage at Houston’s NRG Park on Friday night as Scott was performing, it triggered a chaotic deadly stampede.
Madeline Eskins, an ICU nurse who was also at the concert as a fan for the third annual festival, told FOX 26 the event was unlike anything she had seen before.
“It was absolutely insane,” she said.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. I am disturbed. Honestly, it should have been stopped.”
“People were being pushed, people were being trampled, and then as I fought my way out of there, I saw people on the ground,” Logan Morris, a Dallas native who was at the show, told AFP.
Raul Marquez, 24, said he saw a lot of drinking and drug use in the crowd. “And they got hot and just dancing and it all caved in and just, they couldn’t breathe, and passed out left and right,” he said.
“Some people didn’t care and just stomped on them or ignored them. It was intense.”
Mr Turner said authorities were looking at video footage, talking to witnesses, concert organisers and people who were hospitalised.
Houston is known for staging high profile events, he said, but “we’ve never had anything like this occur.”
More than 300 people were treated on the scene for minor injuries in the first night of the two-day Astroworld Festival, which Scott helped organise.
Survivors described chaotic scenes of people squeezed up against one another with many struggling to breathe.
Gavyn Flores, 18, said he was standing on the edge of the crowd near a barricade and could not move, for hours on end. He said he tried to hoist people over that wall.
“People were trying to get out, but you can’t move. So there kind of wasn’t a point of trying to get out, because they couldn’t. But if they could, we were trying to help them get thrown over,” Flores told AFP.
More than 360 police officers and 240 security guards were on hand for the festival.
Senior Harris County official Lina Hidalgo said it was “an extremely tragic night.” “Our hearts are broken, people go to these events to have a good time, to make memories,” she added.
Judge Hidalgo acknowledged a previous incident in which Live Nation, the organiser of the concert, had suffered a crowd stampede.
“It may well be that this tragedy is a result of unpredictable events of circumstances coming together that couldn’t possibly have been avoided. But until we determine that, I will ask the tough questions, and that’s what I’ve spent the morning doing,” she said.
“What I know so far is that Live Nation and Astroworld put together plans for this event: a security plan, a site plan; that they were at the table with City of Houston and Harris County.
“Perhaps the plans were inadequate. Perhaps the plans were good but they weren’t followed. Perhaps it was something else entirely.”
“Over the course of just a few minutes, suddenly we had several people down on the ground experience some type of cardiac arrest,” assistant police chief Larry Satterwhite said.
Astroworld organisers cancelled the rest of the festival, where Australian psych-rock band Tame Impala was scheduled to perform the following day.
Other footage on social media showed scores of people rushing the gates at NRG park, with security unable to contain the flow.
Several people could be seen falling over, bringing down the metal detectors at the arena entrance, but it was unclear if that incident was linked to the deaths.
Scott launched the Astroworld music festival in 2018.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said in a statement they were aware of the reported crowd surge at the Astroworld Music Festival.
“Our Post in Houston has confirmed that there are no victims from the stampede unaccounted for,” the spokesperson said.
“Houston Post has not received any requests for any assistance at this time, and is not aware of any Australians being affected by the incident.”
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