Houston Fire Chief Says Travis Scott 'Absolutely' Should Have Stopped Performance, As Astroworld Video Shows Rapper Acknowledging & Disregarding Ambulances
Nov. 9 2021, Published 11:12 a.m. ET
The Houston Fire Chief believes Travis Scott had both the ability and the obligation to stop his Friday night performance at Astroworld Festival, which could have prevented those eight casualties and hundreds of injuries.
Virtually stopping by the Today show Tuesday morning, Chief Samuel Peña gave Savannah Guthrie his initial perspective on the devastating situation while cautioning that the investigation is far from over.
Before answering any questions, though, he first expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased – who ranged in age from 14 to 27 – and sympathy for all who were affected.
Currently, a 9-year-old boy who was sitting on top of his father's shoulders at the concert is fighting for his life in a medically induced coma after he went into cardiac arrest, which caused damage to his heart, liver and lungs, according to CNN. He also has brain swelling.
"We're starting to get some picture of what may have caused this incident," Peña said. "It seems as though the crowd began to try to push towards the front to get as close to the stage as they could when Mr. Scott's set began. And what was happening is the barricades that were placed to prevent the surge toward the stage, in essence, caused other areas of pinch points. And as the crowd began to surge and push and compress towards the front, it was those people in the center that began to get crushed, and the injuries started to begin."
"We're still trying to determine what caused the crowd to begin that surge, but certainly, we're looking at everything," he added. "We're participating with the Houston Police Department, who's taken the lead on this investigation."
Peña said one of his goals was to "ensure that this does not happen again."
Both the Houston Fire Department (HFD) and the Houston Police Department (HPD) declared that the show was a "mass-casualty" event at approximately 9:38 PM local time. The first patient treated by HFD paramedics occurred just 2 minutes later.
The music reportedly continued until 10:15 PM.
One chilling video taken by an attendee standing within the first few rows of the stage showed Scott pausing his set when he noticed commotion.
"There's an ambulance out th–whoa, whoa, whoa," he said into the mic, pointing out toward into the crowd. He pointed and stared silently at what was going on for 24 whole seconds.
"What the f--k is that?" he eventually said into the mic, still pointing. Five seconds later, he told the crowd, "If everybody could put their middle finger up in the sky."