Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy (2025)

[bunniefuu]

There's been a lot of buzz

about Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival.

Talk to any high schooler in Houston.

They're talking about this concert.

Astroworld!

We're young.

We want to live life to the fullest.

It was a concert

that you didn't want to miss.

It's a carefree world.

It's just anything goes.

Hey!

There's people that are just like you.

Yeah!

This is like a playground.

Like, this is crazy.

Should've been the best day of our lives.

But it was the worst.

Folks are coming out,

complaining of difficulty breathing.

Houston 911.

Help at the Astroworld concert,

now, please! I need help!

Stop the show!

You go to a concert to have fun.

I never thought that I would see death.

People are dead and hundreds others hurt.

Police in the United States

have opened a criminal investigation.

Victims were young,

in their teens and 20s.

When looking at the evidence in this case,

I was shocked by what I found.

I never spoke about it before,

but we're doing this

so that people will know the truth.

People don't die at festivals.

What the hell happened?

The world is starting to open up.

It's a beautiful thing for all music fans.

Festivals will finally start to happen.

Something that,

you know, is anticipated every year

and that's Travis Scott's

Astroworld Festival.

We knew that it was gonna be big.

Like, people are ready to party.

I was like,

"He's bringing back Astroworld?"

I just thought I had to be there.

Travis Scott is my favorite rapper.

His music is very hype.

So I would listen to Travis

before my games just to be ready to ball.

Basketball is my world, you know.

It is my ticket to college.

To see Travis get as big as he is today

is, like, inspiring to me.

Move! I told you to back up!

I was like, man, someone

who grew up in the same city as me...

Yeah! Travis Scott! Yes, sir!

...can take over the music industry.

Travis Scott!

It was like he was repping us.

Travis represents a lot for Houston.

Kids look up to him.

Houston has a little bit of everybody.

And I think that Travis,

he brings people from all over together.

This week has been dubbed Astroworld Week

with Travis Scott holding events

leading up to this weekend.

I'm Coco Dominguez at Minute Maid Park

where this is just one of the events

that is raising funds for the youth

ahead of Astroworld's third

annual festival happening this weekend.

Houston!

I cover feature stories here in Houston.

So I feature anything that's buzzing.

I've been covering Travis for a long time.

And he's a hip-hop rock star.

Just a kid just making it.

- Why give back to the community?

- Man, it's the only thing to do.

What's all this if you can't bring it back

to the community and share it with people?

And have fun, man?

He was born in the Houston scene,

but he took it to another level.

Hip-hop has always been going

against the system.

He was positioning himself

as that person to be like, yeah...

an I curse? "f*ck the system."

Everybody, jump, jump back!

Pull out the zip

Pull out the ride, yeah!

Travis Scott live is an experience.

Yeah! We so f*ck' high

Upper echelon, yeah!

His fans are called ragers,

and they look at him like he's God.

Like he's the messiah of music.

Five, four...

Take-off!

That rager element

comes from the mosh pits.

- Deep off in the main.

- M&M

He tells people, "Yo, if you came

to a Travis Scott show to look cool,

get the f*ck out."

Because it's real.

He wants you to turn up.

f*ck that!

Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce

Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!

Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!

You feel the energy off of him

because we feed into him,

but he feeds into us.

- Everybody in this, say Astroworld!

- Astroworld!

- Say Astroworld!

- Astroworld!

You get an overwhelming

sensation of, like, happiness.

Travis! Travis! Travis!

We're living in wild times right now.

People just want to be themselves.

He was in the right place

at the right time

to fit in that pocket for people.

And then Astroworld Festival

took him into outer space,

into the heavens, you know what I mean?

We don't get

a lot of festivals in Houston.

There was a huge buzz about it.

Then he did it again

at Astroworld Festival 2019.

Everything was bigger.

The artists were bigger.

2020 came, the pandemic happened.

The world shut down. Ah.

We didn't get Astroworld number three.

And then he wanted

to bring it back in 2021.

For the first time,

this would be a two-day event

with a ton of artists

playing across the two stages

and Travis playing the headline set.

All of us had been locked up for so long.

This was, "Let's go get it."

It's about to go down.

Manny, want one?

We knew it was gonna be

the biggest event in the whole year.

They had a great lineup.

You know, a boys trip is the best thing.

We had a group chat

and we planned everything out.

- Outfits.

- Shades.

Travis Scott had just dropped

some new music.

So we were listening to that,

getting ready to dance.

Our friend Rudy listened

to every type of music.

Music was very important to us

and connected all of us together.

We had gone to Astroworld

two years before that,

but Rudy hadn't gone before.

And he was excited.

He wanted to go and go. He couldn't wait.

This one looks really good.

Things opening up after COVID,

we were stoked like, "We're gonna to go."

There was nothing that we didn't want

to do more than be at that place.

Before the pandemic,

I loved going to experience music.

I was super excited

about going to Astroworld.

Like, "Oh my God! All this time,

we haven't been able to see."

"And all this good music has come out

and all these artists. We have to go."

I had just started nursing school.

I always wanted to help people.

Vaccination appointments!

Please drive to Dodger Stadium!

Three weeks before Astroworld,

I had just received

my license to practice nursing.

And what better way to celebrate

than going to Astroworld Fest?

It was a concert

that you didn't want to miss.

And you know it was gonna be fun.

There has been a lot of buzz

about Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival.

Tickets for the festival

sold out in 30 minutes.

This is the setup at NRG Park

where Travis Scott will be performing.

I've gotten ready for Astroworld.

I'm so excited.

I'm from Houston,

so we're going to get down right now...

- Show us what it's like to party!

- Yes, sir!

Aw!

- We slept what, three, four hours?

- Three hours.

You guys always get crazy.

Coming from a small town,

going to a huge city,

seeing all these artists

I never thought I would see in my life.

We were just so excited to go.

We got the wristbands.

- Yeah...

- Yes, sir.

We all met up early in the morning.

Just hyping each other up before the day.

It was my girlfriend Mikaela.

Her friend Bri.

She liked Travis, and I was like,

"Oh! Common ground."

Bri was just excited to see Travis

and enjoy the show.

I flew out for Astroworld from LA.

I really wanted to see Roddy Ricch.

I was really excited to see SZA.

Earth Wind & Fire,

Bad Bunny, Houston's Don Toliver,

and even Master P

are expected to be there.

Good luck if you don't have a ticket,

because the show is sold out.

Headed to Astroworld, man.

We got this, y'all. We out.

When I heard

that Astroworld 2021 was happening,

I immediately reached out to our team

and was like, "2021, are we back?"

"Because I'd like to be back."

I shot all of the previous Astroworld

festivals along with other photographers.

My entire career changed

once I was hired for Astroworld.

Because it proved to Live Nation

that I could be a part

of the festival team.

They hold so much of this industry

in the palm of their hand.

If you're working in live music,

there's a really high chance

that you're working for Live Nation.

So by talking

about what happened at Astroworld,

I know that I'm jeopardizing

my career, ultimately.

Astroworld 2021,

it was a Live Nation concert.

Live Nation is the driving force

in the live entertainment

industry globally.

Live Nation works with the most

iconic artists in the touring world.

Concerts, festivals,

artist management, and ticketing.

They're running the game.

We're the largest concert company

in the world by far.

So we think the festival business

is incredible business.

There's a boom going on in America.

Highest margin piece of our business.

So think of us as Disneyland for live.

Going into Astroworld,

hearing that Live Nation

is working with Travis,

was like, "Oh, all right."

He's valuable, he makes people money,

and he makes people feel good.

You can't beat that.

Live Nation are gonna see that,

and they're gonna be like,

"Word, let's work with him."

"He's one of the biggest stars.

Let's make this poppin'."

The morning

of the first day of the festival,

I was shocked

at how big the festival had grown.

There was a whole stage

dedicated to just Travis.

It wasn't gonna be used all day.

We were instructed

to lean into the fans and the chaos.

The promo video that they put out

showed footage from 2019

of the fans breaking down

the fences to get in.

Astroworld Fest in full swing

but now with extra security.

We want to show you what it looked like

when the festival opened its doors today.

It was stressed to us

that we try and match that energy,

showing how crazy it all is.

We got ready to sh**t doors.

It's gonna be crazy.

We know kids are gonna run in.

They're gonna try and get to merch

or get on the barricade.

It was palpable,

the energy and the excitement.

We were working

as security guards at Astroworld in 2021.

A friend of mine had made a post asking,

"Do anybody want to work

the Travis Scott concert?"

I looked at my uncle like,

"You wanna do it?"

I didn't know much about Astroworld.

Just, you know, heard about Travis Scott.

I'm in the space where everything counts.

I'm 27 years old.

I got five children, and my finances

gotta make sense, you know?

So I was blowing the number up.

Like, "Look, I'm all the way ready.

I'm all the way prepared."

"If you're looking for somebody,

I'm the guy."

This all happened in literally

one and two o'clock in the morning.

The day before the concert.

They hit us back

and told us to wear all black.

And be there for 5:30

in the morning, and we were there.

The only instructions that we had

came from other workers

that was working with us.

And they were like,

"Hey, they're gonna rush the gates."

"So y'all be ready."

It started immediately,

as soon as they let the gates open.

And it didn't really stop.

Hey, they're rushing in.

Oh my God!

They in the festival!

Let's go.

We were going over the hill

to hold the barricades

and try to stop everybody from bombing in.

These fans were little.

Slow it down. Stop!

But there's so many.

It didn't matter how big you were.

It was more than what I had bargained for.

Kids are gonna be kids.

Young people do young people stuff.

Doesn't make it right or acceptable,

but I understand it.

Astroworld Festival paid

for the Houston Police Department

to provide police security.

We don't have any control

over the planning, the strategies,

security guards, any of that stuff.

We're there for law enforcement.

What was going on

was so totally predictable.

There didn't seem to be

any contingency plans or mitigating.

- Yes, sir!

- Yeah!

They lost all control of the entry points.

Oh!

People were getting in unticketed.

And it was just overwhelming chaos.

We worked on trying to just get

some control over this situation.

Get the f*ck back!

Get back! Go. Go that way!

Travis Scott had developed a reputation.

We had seen crowd management issues

at other festivals.

Yeah!

Straight from Mexico

Call her Quintana

Come here, kid.

You tried to take my shoe?

You wanna be a thief?

f*ck him up!

f*ck that kid!

They're gonna catch you.

Don't be scared. Don't be scared!

Five, four...

We want rage! We want rage!

Chaos in the crowds at Lollapalooza.

All the security, back the f*ck up!

A performer is charged

with causing the commotion

that sent fans over security barricades.

That type of energy

requires a high, high level of planning.

Generally speaking, you don't want

to go to a concert with me, you know.

Um, it's hard to turn off.

I provide public safety management

in high-risk environments.

In an ideal scenario, we're brought on

for the site design of an event.

More often than not, we're brought on

after some sort

of critical incident has occurred.

In the aftermath

of the Astroworld tragedy,

I was asked to work with Live Nation.

I wanted to look honestly

at what occurred.

I was in receipt

of a treasure trove of evidence.

This was not a case of missing red flags.

This was a case

of ignoring blaring warning sirens.

I was shocked by... by what I found.

Travis Scott's much-anticipated

Astroworld Festival is in full swing.

The event is two days

and is expected to attract

tens of thousands of music lovers.

We're here at m*therf*cking Astroworld.

We're lit. I just broke

two fingernails in the first hour.

Big Astroworld.

- Astroworld day!

- Let's go!

Hey, we are here.

It is day one Astroworld Fest.

How many times have you been here before?

This is our first time.

- Where are you from?

- I'm from Houston.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Who are you most excited to see?

Oh, my gosh. You go first.

A couple, but of course, Travis Scott.

It's a carefree world.

Hey!

Wanna walk around

with your clothes off? Do it.

You can do whatever you want

because you're in Astroworld now.

There's people that are

just like you who are just like...

Ah!

This isn't just a concert.

This is, like, a playground.

This is crazy. I liked it a lot.

So it was Mikaela, Bri, and Talia.

They were all having a really good time

because it was their first Astroworld.

Seeing the mountain,

you know it's gonna be a good show.

It just gave you more of a rush.

Like, "What does he have planned?"

So I was

on assignment for Billboard.

I was walking around the festival.

Everybody was enjoying the games.

Heave that ball!

Oh!

They had a mini rollercoaster.

It felt like a theme park.

Where in the world but Astroworld

Can you have so much fun?

Astroworld Six Flags in Houston

was a legendary theme park.

All of a sudden it closed down.

Turn out the lights. The party's over.

Thirty-seven years of Houston history

have come to a close.

Six Flags Astroworld has shut down

for good this evening.

Then Travis came into the picture

and started talking about it.

I grew up here.

I was inspired by Astroworld.

When they took it away, um, it kind of

took a big piece of my heart away.

It ended up becoming his album.

You know,

he kept building the lore of that.

That kind of awoken the kid in his fans.

The older you get, the more

you separate from your adolescence.

With Travis doing that,

he kind of brought us back to it.

We were so excited

that we were in Astroworld.

So we took pictures everywhere.

I remember I was so excited

I took a selfie in the porta-potty.

I was in the porta-potty,

but at Astroworld.

I need to see that. That's funny.

We were flying in the air.

Rudy would always like,

"Take me a picture!"

Find a spot. "Take me a picture."

He knew what trends were going on,

what the vibe was.

He had all the swag.

Look at the stage.

Hey!

Astroworld!

You guys gotta get the merch!

Get the merch! Yes, sir!

I was a really big Travis Scott fan.

And I loved the energy it brings.

If you really love the artist

and what they stand for,

you just want to represent them

in any way you can, you know.

So we waited four hours

in line for the merch.

It was under the scorching sun too.

It was pretty bad.

I held onto my merch the whole time.

And I have a really bad habit

of getting FOMO.

This is where

Travis Scott's gonna perform.

- We're checking it out.

- 8:45 we're gonna be right here.

So I just went immediately

to Travis' stage, and I camped it out.

I said!

Skrrt, skrrt on n*gg*s

Skrrt up on n*gg*s!

Skrrt down, you acting like me!

- She acting like...

- Acting like me

SZA was so much fun.

I... I danced. I was singing my heart out.

Baby, hold me

'ause I like the way you groove

SZA is, like, finishing her songs.

We know the set is almost over.

Everybody, have a good night!

We see people kind of start to leave.

We follow the people.

- Let's go!

- It's f*cking Disneyland.

We're going to Travis' set.

Let's go.

I was like, "Let me make sure

I get to a good spot for Travis."

You had to turn this corner.

And once you turned the corner,

it was just boom.

I was just like, "Wow."

We sort of just followed

that group of people, you know?

But that's when it started

getting pretty hectic.

We lost each other.

Wow, this place is f*cking dope.

When I agreed to work Astroworld,

I was excited.

I thought I would just show up

as a paramedic. Just walk around.

Enjoy some music,

make some easy money.

You know, because I've always told myself,

if I have to do real paramedic work,

someone else is having a really bad day.

When we arrived at the stage,

there was a countdown clock.

It was counting down

until Travis Scott came out.

And I just remember thinking,

"We gotta get closer

before the timer goes, so we can see him."

"It's gonna get crazy.

You're gonna have a great time."

Okay, let's go!

So once that clock got up,

it got a little bit tighter.

Yeah!

When it got to that last minute,

it got even more tighter.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

It's time to see Travis Scott.

People were trying to get in the front.

Appreciate it.

We're trying to tell Manny and Marshall,

"Hey, we're here.

Come with us. We got a good spot."

I couldn't get close to them.

It was so quick,

so quick, that it just got packed.

Mikaela's looking at my face like,

"Is this normal?"

Well, we're here, Astroworld.

I'm f*cking dying out of breath

in this b*tch.

- And everybody else is dying...

- Get him up!

And I'm kind of just like,

"This really isn't normal."

Ten, nine, eight,

seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...

The music started playing

and everyone just...

You just felt your whole body

just move forward.

Let's go!

Go! Go! Go! Go!

Twelve-figure estate plan

That was the escape plan

But hate investigatin'

That sh*t was a--

I stopped the facin'

'Cause sh*t just start erasin'

It opened gates

And this sh*t just start paradin'

He came out to "Escape Plan."

Let's go!

It felt like an earthquake.

My body was jumping up like this.

It was wild.

And of course, he's giving that

to his fans. He wants that back.

Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

During that first minute,

whenever Travis just entered the stage.

And then everyone's really hype.

And everyone's body moves forward.

And then the wave comes back.

It's stuck like magnets do

I put you in that magnitude

I embrace the p*ssy

I'm not tryna embarrass you

That was like being stuffed

into one little spot

and just being squeezed.

Houston!

Yeah!

I'm like, "Oh, my God. I can't breathe."

"I can't take a deep breath."

It was full-blown panic.

I started to feel a certain fear.

That's when I feel like I was like,

"Hold on. This is not okay."

She can't breathe!

I was center stage.

It's, like, secured area

where they were supposed to be empty

to allow for medical personnel

and security to get through.

People were already coming over the edge.

Give me your other hand!

That's typical

in any concert that I've been to.

People get hot.

They get tired. They pass out.

I didn't know it was gonna happen

to this magnitude.

People just kept coming and coming.

When we got to the main stage situation,

it was crazy.

Anywhere you look, you seen somebody

either hyperventilating, changing colors,

or that wanted help out of there.

I had helped out maybe 20 people

in my little section right there,

just me alone.

I was positioned

in the left-hand of the cross.

Once Travis was on stage,

I kind of just went into work mode,

like everybody else.

And tried to get my shots,

trying to do what I was told,

which was lean into the chaos.

There were people

wanting to come over the railing.

When I saw the condition

they were in when they were coming over,

I... thought,

"It must be really bad up there."

It became overwhelming real fast.

And I remember thinking to myself,

"What the hell is going on?"

One thing that was different

about Astroworld 2021

was that Travis had kept his own stage

unused all day until his performance.

This meant thousands of concertgoers

moved to his stage at the same time.

Compounding this dangerous situation

was the fact that the concertgoers

were approaching the stage from the side,

pushing into a T-shaped barrier system.

This was supposed to make the stage safer.

But instead,

its configuration created a trap

on the left-hand side of the stage.

And so the compression

just built and built

where people could not escape.

People were pushing left,

people were pushing right,

to the back, to the front.

There was just no space.

I wasn't even, like, breathing right,

so I had to look up,

trying to calm my breathing down.

It was a nightmare.

That's the best way I could put it.

Well, Rudy was behind me the whole time.

Rudy told me, "I can't breathe, man."

And I just told him, "Try and relax, man."

"Just drink some water."

The crowd was swaying,

and I was swaying with the crowd

because it was so tight

I had no control over my body.

And I just remember thinking,

"Don't fall down

because you won't make it back up."

Help! Please! Help!

One of those waves just hit

both me and Bri.

We all fell to our backs.

I could hear her in pain.

You know, asking, "Help me get out,"

and stuff like that.

I was the second layer.

There was people under me.

And then me falling on my back,

and then people stacking on top of me.

And I felt like

the more I kept fighting it,

the more I was wasting energy.

Like if you're holding

your breath underwater.

I could feel

the oxygen just leaving my body.

All those pains,

all those panicking moments. Um...

I'm sorry, I just...

Um...

- Help!

- I know! We're trying!

Help, help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!

Houston 911,

do you need medical, police, or fire?

We're at the Astroworld concert.

It's getting really f*cking dangerous.

It needs to stop.

- What are you reporting?

- Everyone's piled on each other.

Wait, you're good.

Man. It was crazy, man.

There's people over here

screaming for help.

But then you look to the right,

and there's people having a fun time.

The rest of the people seemed to have

no idea what was going on.

Bounce!

Everybody!

Help!

Help! Help!

Yo!

I don't know how long I was

under there but it felt like forever.

And then people moved off of me.

I saw someone's face. They looked at me.

He pulled me out.

How am I gonna get up? Oh, sh*t.

And I just remember

feeling so many different things.

Where's Mikaela?

Uh, did Bri get out?

I looked for Mikaela. I found her.

She was asking me questions.

"Where's everybody? You saw them get out?"

I knew where I saw Bri.

Anyone who was at the same level as me

was not receiving oxygen.

I just remember kind of panicking in

that moment, like, let's try to stop this.

I went up the ladder

to get on the camera platform.

I was just yelling, "Stop the show."

- People are f*cking dying!

- Get the f*ck down, b*tch.

Y'all weren't in there, bro!

Shut the f*ck up!

Y'all weren't in there.

People are f*cking dying.

I'm trying to save somebody's life.

That's somebody's kid.

- Two hands to the sky.

- I want to save them.

Calm down.

I felt like nobody was on my side.

Except there was this one person.

And then I was like, "I'm not alone."

- There's someone dying!

- Stop the show!

Stop the show! Stop the show!

I felt like I'm helpless.

I knew

Bri was in that area still struggling.

I just wanted to find some help.

Yeah

Custom the things

Custom the wings

I had to custom the vibe

I get pulled

to a patient that's on the ground.

And I cannot ascertain a pulse.

I need to start CPR.

I needed a life pack, a defibrillator.

I needed a lot of stuff.

I key up my radio, and I'm communicating

with command center.

"I have a patient down.

CPR is in progress."

They were a little shocked

and taken aback.

Because they asked me to repeat,

"Hey, did you say CPR in progress?"

They have to stop the show

because there's people trampled.

They're not breathing.

Multiple reports of people being injured.

We have another report of a cardiac

situation with CPR by the stage.

In the commotion, the pressure of people,

I... I lost my balance, and I fell.

I fell on something. I fell on someone.

And I just remember feeling,

like, pressure.

Like... Like... Like...

Because people were falling on me.

Hey! Help!

I remember looking up

and just being like, "I'm gonna die here."

And then someone saw my hand.

And they helped me up.

And I had got myself together,

and I'm still shocked

because I'm like, "What just happened?"

Around that time,

people were starting to pile up

around me.

It almost made me feel like

I was going crazy,

like it wasn't actually happening,

because surely, they would stop the show.

If it was as bad as it looked,

they would stop the show, right?

Travis!

Travis Scott is playing this whole time.

I was in shock, I was shaking.

And at this point, I was like,

"I have to be out there helping people

because I'm a registered nurse."

And there was this guy on the floor.

I do my assessment on him.

He has a pulse, but it's really faint.

I grab his legs,

and I just remember putting them up.

I'm doing sternum rubs.

I was like, "I really hope this works.

I really, really hope this works."

And then his chest went from not moving

to, like, rising and falling.

His eyes opened up.

Like, "He's breathing!

He's breathing! He's opening his eyes!"

I'm like..."Okay."

I was fighting for my life at that point.

I was practically

being suffocated to death.

What led up to me passing out

was like a heart attack.

The doctors really had to explain to me

what had really happened.

And I was like, "Holy sh*t,

she, you know, brought me back to life."

"She was there for me."

And I'm like, "God bless her."

Yeah.

Oh, oh, oh...

Play it slowly. Somebody help him.

Somebody passed out right here.

Somebody passed out right here.

Hold on. Don't touch him.

Everybody, just back up.

There was a part where he stopped.

I was a few feet away from him.

Somebody jump in.

Come on, security. Let's get in there.

Yeah

I remember seeing

this kid being carried out.

Normally, you see people carried out,

they're all nestled in the person

or they got their arms or legs,

and they're taking them out.

I've never seen anybody carried out

the way that this kid got carried out.

Yeah

Yeah

Yeah

And it looked like

Travis is trying to process it

and try to figure out what to do next.

Stop the show!

Standing in the ocean

90210, 90210

It felt like a horror movie.

You see people going like this.

You can hear the screams.

You don't see this?

Then he goes back to performing.

And I'm like,

"No. What are you doing, bro?"

Any key decision maker

from police, fire, EMS or Live Nation

should have been able to very quickly

initiate a show stop process,

what should have been as simple

as a literal

or figurative button being pushed.

But what made it confusing

was that according

to the event operations plan,

there were only two people

from Live Nation

that had the delegated authority

to stop the show.

We're only hearing what was coming

through the police line.

They were looking

for the manager from Live Nation,

trying to locate him

and to either end the concert

or delay the concert,

and they could not find him.

Stop the show! Stop the show!

Man...

New York City has birthed

a lot of good people.

And this person was

a really good friend of mine.

And he was going...

I've seen numerous artists stop a show.

And not just stop here or there,

make sure somebody's okay,

but stop the show.

And nobody was doing that.

My b*tch love coco

Yeah

Woo back, baby

Let's go, y'all

Let me see some

Okay, okay

You cannot say Pop

And forget the Smoke

I'm from the Floss

Where n*gg*s tote

They couldn't be Crips

Droppin' the cho

I gotta laugh

'Cause these n*gg*s jokes

They're like, who these n*gg*s?

Who these n*gg*s? I don't know

Oh, what?

We eventually make it to the medical tent,

and I continue chest compressions.

I ended up getting a pulse back,

and we had vital signs.

We had blood pressure, which was great.

I have this, like,

sense of relief where I can just...

...kind of rest and relax.

And when I look up to assess

what's going on around me,

to my right, there's two other patients

being worked on.

Behind me,

there's another patient being worked on.

And if I look down the medical tent,

there were two more patients

being worked on.

Anything can happen at the night show

At the night show

And the evidence shows

that a manager from Live Nation

finally went backstage

and talked to an audio engineer.

I have a transcript of what was said.

When Travis Scott performs,

that audio engineer has the ability

to speak into his ears.

You know what?

We don't know what was actually

said to Travis after that.

Houston, I wanna see

the motherfuckin' rage, and Chase B...

But then, amid this chaos,

a different conversation takes place.

This time between police and Live Nation,

allowing the concert more time.

And in that time, Drake comes on stage.

The police and organizers said

they didn't want to trigger crowd panic

by stopping abruptly,

but people were dying.

The idea of a performance continuing

while even one CPR in progress is underway

is insane.

Unprecedented.

Not to mention, multiple.

You a little Post Oak baby

You a little 48 baby.

Got a little candy in her pocket

She gon' take off...

Of all the things

that trouble me about this case...

that's one thing I can't get past.

How could they make that decision?

Houston, Texas! My name is Travis.

Everybody, I love y'all.

Make it home safe.

Good night!

As soon as that concert finished,

it was so chaotic.

There was ambulances everywhere.

- Move!

- Open up!

I immediately started calling Raul,

calling Manny, texting the group chat.

I got the messages,

"Where are y'all? Let's meet here."

Bro, look at this sh*t.

Got the helicopters everywhere.

Everybody started

slowly getting there, but Rudy.

That was so strange to me

because the whole time I had thought,

"Oh, he got out."

You know, he made it out safe.

But he's the only one missing.

That's when I hit full panic.

I just started running towards

the emergency and all the ambulances.

- Move!

- That's what we're doing.

Move the f*ck out of the way!

There was no sign of him.

So I start calling hospitals.

This hospital answer me.

They say that they do have

someone under my friend's name.

There was no information

due to us not being family.

So that's when I called Rudy's mom.

His friends called me.

And I tell them, "Where's Rudy?"

They say, "We don't know."

Then I had a bad feeling.

But at the same time I said,

"No, it's not possible. It can't be."

His older brother says to me,

"Mother, you have to go to Houston."

I tell his stepfather, "We have to go."

On my way, I kept saying,

"Rudy has to be okay. He has to be fine."

This is a... a tragic night.

And we had scores of individuals

that were injured here in this event.

If your relative,

family member was at this event,

and you have not spoken

to that individual,

go to the reunification center.

We will have units there

available to assist.

We were frantically looking for Bri.

We end up finding out that

Bri was getting rushed to the hospital.

Right when we get there,

her family

just starts crying

like really, really loud.

We're thinking,

"Oh, they're still trying."

"It's not over yet."

"There's still an opportunity

for her to be saved."

So we're still waiting.

Waiting for some good news.

Until they come back and they're just,

"Yeah, we can't do anything."

Everyone just, like, dropped to the floor.

I just remember crying...

and feeling like this is

the worst night of my life. This is...

I felt defeated.

I thought I had everything figured out

up until that point.

We arrived

at that address.

"Where is my son?"

"I want to see him."

I run into a cop at the door.

He grabs me, and I say to him,

"Where is my son?"

"Is he okay?"

And he says, "No, he's passed away."

So that's when I just lost it.

I was screaming.

What am I gonna tell his siblings?

What am I gonna tell his friends?

What am I gonna say

to my heart, to my soul?

They stole my light.

They stole a part of my heart.

I couldn't bear it.

And so far, I still can't.

It's a pain

that I don't wish on any mother.

If you're just waking up

and haven't watched the reports,

we know

that at least eight people are dead

and hundreds others hurt

during opening night

of rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld.

So many unanswered questions

right now like,

"What caused these eight people to die?"

It's really hard

because I've been following Travis' fans

for a really long time.

You know, they're good kids.

We came back the next day.

It was an active crime scene

with a large perimeter.

We had to secure the perimeter

and spent most of the day

just gathering information,

take pictures and measurements.

At the time, we didn't know

what had actually happened.

We had to investigate everything

and kinda eliminate everything.

The next morning,

we got a text from Live Nation

that day two wasn't happening.

And that we were going to have a meeting.

They didn't really touch on

what had happened.

For me, it was more about

not talking to the press,

not posting, not making

any sort of public comment on it.

I just thought, like,

they were trying to cover their asses

and make sure that we didn't say

anything that could hurt them.

I want to send condolences to the family.

This is now a criminal investigation.

We leave no stones unturned.

A lot of narratives out there right now.

A lot of them.

Someone allegedly injected a police

officer with some type of substance.

...was injecting other people with drugs.

A bad batch of ill*gal drugs.

This narrative is going around

that many people were on drugs,

and that's what caused this.

These people did not die

from a needle in their neck.

That's not why what happened happened.

The answers are in front of you.

We're telling you what happened.

Like, why are people not hearing us?

I'm waiting on Travis.

I'm waiting to see how he plays this.

I want to send out prayers to the...

...to the ones that was lost last night.

You know, my mans... my fans like...

my fans really mean the world to me,

and I always really want to leave them

with a positive experience.

Anytime I can make out,

you know, anything that's going on,

I'll stop the show and...

help them get the help

they need, you know?

Um...

I could never imagine

the severity of the situation.

An apology video,

it was like a slap in the face

to me, to everyone who suffered.

Like it wasn't really like...

You know, he made it because he had to.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry, guys.

Catch you at the next one."

That's what the vibes were to me.

It just looked bad.

It looked really bad, and you didn't look

like a superhero like you once did.

A 9th person has died

in connection

with the Astroworld concert tragedy.

22-year-old Bharti Shahani,

a senior at Texas A&M,

was declared dead last night

after being on life support

since Friday's event.

The youngest victim

crushed in the crowd surge

has succumbed to his injury.

Nine-year-old Ezra Blount has died.

He had been in a medically induced coma.

Ezra is now the 10th and youngest person

to die from the disaster.

The more I see with all of this,

the more damning all of it is.

He wanted this mob mentality chaos,

and it k*lled people.

A new development now,

Nike is delaying the release

of a sneaker collaboration

with Travis Scott amid the tragedy.

There is a petition circulating

asking that Scott be removed

from the popular Coachella music festival.

You fail to provide

a safe atmosphere at your show,

and your fans die right in front of you.

And you treat them

as completely worthless.

There was so much noise around Travis

that eventually, he had no choice

but to come out and defend himself.

People said they collectively heard

folks screaming "help"

every time you stopped the song

to get your attention.

Did you... Did you hear

any of those screams?

Nah, man. And you know, it's so crazy

because I'm that artist too.

Anytime you can hear something like that,

you want to stop the show.

I just didn't hear that.

Was there ever any communication to you

on stage that you should end this?

Well, yeah. They told me

right after the guests get off stage,

"We're gonna end the show."

And that's what we did.

Other than that,

there was no other communication.

- So they didn't say, "Stop now?"

- No.

- Nobody said, "Stop now."

- Gotcha.

You know, a lot of the criticism

from the tragedy,

they say is in the poor planning

and understaffing of the event.

As an artist, do you have

any involvement in any of that?

Well, I mean, as an artist,

you just do the creative.

You know, I just can control

what I can on the stage,

and you have the professionals control

what they can in the crowd.

This notion that Travis had the ability

to stop the concert is ludicrous.

The only two people that have

the authority to stop the concert

were the executive producer

and the concert producer.

For so many

to just think Travis is at fault,

you're creating a void for a lot of people

that organized that concert

to step back and not even be in the light.

It's the first time I've been back.

I can see all of it.

I say whoever had any parts

in organizing and putting it together

should be accountable.

Live Nation,

you guys were in charge of this.

What was the failure?

49 lawsuits filed in Harris County

in connection to the tragedy

against Live Nation,

Astroworld's promoter.

Rapper Travis Scott,

Apple Music, and Epic Records

are among those facing

a $750-million lawsuit.

One lawsuit claims the festival was

a "predictable and preventable tragedy."

We will make sure that they get justice

because this should have

never, ever happened.

In the months afterwards,

Live Nation got in touch with me.

I knew the venue.

I knew the event. I knew the politics.

I could quickly make sense

of what happened.

I was given text messages

between executives to emails.

Documentation and site plans,

thousands of photographs and videos,

all of which have been made public.

I believe Astroworld 2021

was not an accident.

It was an inevitability

due to the lack of foresight

and the abandonment

of basic safety protocols.

To understand what happened,

you have to go back to the beginning.

Live Nation reportedly sold

50,000 tickets to the festival.

But these tickets were sold

before they'd worked out

how this number would be able

to safely view Travis' set.

Following the tragedy,

experts for the plaintiffs

examined the evidence

and believed there was viewing capacity

for just 35,000 concertgoers

at the main stage.

Which would mean they planned

for many thousands more people

than could safely view

Travis' performance.

And to compound that,

the moment they lost control of the gates,

there's now an unknown number

of people at the festival.

In the days leading up to the event,

we can actually see text messages

between key members

of this management team.

Expressing 50,000 people

are not going to fit here.

They knew this was going to be an issue.

So not only was Travis' stage

in danger of being over capacity,

this poorly designed site led to people

approaching the stage from the side

and getting trapped in an area where

they were crushed, unable to breathe.

All ten fatalities were caused

by compression asphyxiation in this area.

Further text messages, sent just minutes

before Travis got on stage

show that Live Nation was aware

of the tragedy that was unfolding.

But they failed to act

before it was too late.

In all the failures of Astroworld,

a common denominator is

a failure to speak truth to power.

There were

many missed opportunities to speak up.

Somebody to raise their hand

and say, "Time out."

"This doesn't make sense.

We're gonna hurt somebody."

It was just a sadness in our city

because this is our festival.

You didn't have to know somebody

to be affected

because it's affected,

you know, our community.

My love for Travis was definitely

at one point boiling hot.

But now...

Hate's a strong word,

but I just... I can't support that anymore.

For the first time in my life, I felt,

like, true depression and true anxiety...

because I didn't think

I was more deserving

of other people to make it out.

Why me and why not them?

Thank God I have another chance to live

the life that I do now because of her.

- Oh, my God!

- Hi!

- You scared me! Hey, Sophia!

- Hi!

Oh, my God.

There's no way this happened,

and we don't talk afterwards.

That we're not in each other's lives

after all this just happened.

- There you go. You won.

- I won!

You got the two out of three.

Fair enough.

Our connection is so strong. Like

hopefully, we're... we're friends forever.

I'm just happy you're here.

I was 18 years old

whenever Astroworld happened.

My life has completely changed

from that moment.

Just the fact that Bri passed away

put me down, like, a dark depression.

I was gonna go to school

because I was gonna play basketball.

And I just gave up on it all.

I think about that day all the time.

What I did too slow

or what I wish I did first.

When I relive that moment,

um, trying to change my actions,

hoping for a different outcome,

but it's always the same outcome.

It could have been preventable.

It's still difficult

to talk about our friend's passing.

- For Rudy.

- For Rudy.

For Rudy.

We said that he brought people together.

After that,

he brought even more people together.

The whole city.

His funeral was so big.

Everyone was there.

Every day, I go to the grave.

They ask me why I go so much.

I say, "Let me live my pain."

It's the mother's pain.

Seeing my mom suffer every day

hurts us.

A lot.

Because we too are feeling that same pain.

As a family we share the same pain.

I say my prayers for him.

He knows

we'll see him soon.

I wish there were changes

because of what happened

with Rudy and the other people.

I wish that now those artists who perform,

those owners

of those companies were better.

So that what happened to Rudy

doesn't happen to anyone else.

He always motivated us

to reach for higher goals.

And if we were scared, he would say,

"Just do it, man. Don't be scared."

He deserves justice.

Someone should be accountable.

We don't ever want it to get lost

that Live Nation is the largest

concert promoter in the world.

They do these every day.

We gotta be talking

to the industry leader.

That's the only way you get change.

That's the only way we save lives.

We don't just point at the little people,

we point at all of them,

and we don't let the big people get away.

There has to be some level

of accountability that's industry-wide.

And that's not

your stock price dipping momentarily.

That's not you missing out

on sponsorship deals.

We have to learn from this.

Otherwise, it'll happen again.

One thing that I find inspiring is

the young concertgoers

that stood up courageously

and advocated for one another.

Calling for action.

It's powerful.

Whoever cut the corners,

that's who I hold responsible.

I need to see that these people

get justice and that things change.

Will we ever get "I'm sorrys"?

I want people to listen.

I want people to hear us whenever we say,

"This is not okay.

This is not how concerts go."