scorecard
  1. Home
  2. entertainment
  3. news
  4. Travis Scott kept playing for more than 30 minutes after police declared Astroworld a mass-casualty event

Travis Scott kept playing for more than 30 minutes after police declared Astroworld a mass-casualty event

Sinéad Baker   

Travis Scott kept playing for more than 30 minutes after police declared Astroworld a mass-casualty event
  • There was a long gap between a mass-casualty declaration at Astroworld and the show's end on Friday.
  • The declaration came at about 9:38 p.m. The concert continued until at least 10:10 p.m.

The rapper Travis Scott kept playing for more than 30 minutes after the police declared a mass-casualty event at his Astroworld festival in Houston on Friday.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said early on Saturday that a "mass casualty" event had been declared at about 9:38 p.m. during Scott's performance.

Scott kept performing until about 10:15 p.m., a 37-minute gap, according to The New York Times and the Houston Chronicle.

Earlier reports, including from Reuters, described officials as saying the show stopped at 10:10 p.m.

At least eight people died and hundreds of other people were injured as the crowd surged during Scott's performance.

It is not clear how much Scott knew about what was happening in the crowd while he was on stage.

Kylie Jenner, Scott's girlfriend and the mother of his first child, said she and Scott were not aware of what was going on.

"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," Jenner said on Instagram on Sunday.

Attendees told Insider's Joshua Zitser that organizers ignored desperate concertgoers who pleaded with them to stop the show.

Videos showed people in the crowd chanting, "Stop the show."

Another video appeared to show a woman climbing on the stage to tell a cameraman that people were dying.

Scott briefly stopped his performance at about 9:42 p.m. when he noticed someone unconscious in the crowd, The Washington Post said.

He said that someone needed to help the concertgoer and called for security, then kept going, The Post said.

Scott said on Saturday that he was "absolutely devastated" and would work with the police's investigation.

Videos from the concert appeared to show attendees dancing on ambulances that were trying to get through the crowd during Scott's performance and first responders attempting to resuscitate people.

READ MORE ARTICLES ON



Popular Right Now



Advertisement