Travis Scott, Drake sued for damages after fatal Astroworld Festival

Rappers Travis Scott and Drake have been sued for more than $1 million after their show at the Astroworld Festival turned deadly.

Rappers Travis Scott and Drake have been sued over the incident at the former’s Astroworld Festival on Friday that left eight people dead.

Texas lawyer Thomas J. Henry filed a lawsuit Sunday, local time, against Travis Scott, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster, as well as Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham. The suit also names Live Nation and NRG Stadium, according to Fox News.

According to a report from The Daily Mail, the suit is being filed on behalf of concert attendee Kristian Paredes, 23, from Austin, Texas.

Paredes reportedly filed the complaint seeking more than $1.35 million in damages after both rappers allegedly “incited the crowd” and left him injured.

The Astroworld Festival turned deadly when the crowd surged forward after Drake made an appearance on stage.

Travis Scott at the 2021 Astroworld Festival at NRG Park, which became a mass casualty event. Picture: Erika Goldring/WireImage

At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner confirmed that while the age of one fatality remained unknown, other victims were 14, 16, 21, 21, 23, 23 and 27.

The causes of the deaths were not immediately known following what has been referred to as a “mass casualty incident.”

In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Henry noted that Drake and Scott continued to perform even as vehicles attempted to break through the crowd to help those who had been injured and others called for the show to be stopped.

“Live musical performances are meant to inspire catharsis, not tragedy,” said Henry in a press release.

“Many of these concertgoers were looking forward to this event for months, and they deserved a safe environment in which to have fun and enjoy the evening. Instead, their night was one of fear, injury, and death.”

Eight people died in the crowd surge during Travis Scott’s concert.

Billboard reports that this is actually the second lawsuit to emerge from the Astroworld incident.

The outlet obtained a petition filed Saturday in Harris County District Court from concert attendee Manuel Souza who is suing Scott as well as organiser ScoreMore and the concert giant Live Nation.

The Harris County District Court nor lawyers for Souza were immediately available for comment.

While the lawsuits clearly seek to blame Scott and Drake for keeping the show going despite seemingly knowing that the crowd was in peril, Scott’s longtime girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, issued a statement on social media Sunday in which she noted that he was unaware of how dire the situation was in the crowd.

Kylie Jenner’s Instagram story statement about the Astroworld incident.

Jenner posted this photos on Instagram but later removed it, showing emergency responders trying to get through the crowd. Picture: Instagram

Scott himself took to his Instagram Story to note that he typically tries to take care of people in the crowd when he notices someone might be in distress.

At the same event in 2019, a stampede broke out among the crowd that left at least three people injured.

He was reportedly arrested in 2017 for inviting fans to bypass security and rush the stage at a show in Arkansas.

That followed a separate incident in 2015 in which he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an incident at Lollapalooza in Chicago, according to The Associated Press.

This story originally appeared on Fox News and has been reproduced here with permission