The attorney representing the family of 10-year-old Ezra Blount, who died at Travis Scott (II)’s Astroworld concert, has slammed the rapper. In a statement to Daily Mail, Bob Hilliard called out the “SICKO MODE” artist and his legal team for his “tone deaf” remarks.
“For an artist making his living with music, these are stunningly tone deaf comments about this preventable tragedy that took so many lives and injured so many,” Hilliard said. “This extremely detailed and damning report confirms both the negligence and extreme gross negligence of those involved, including the Travis Scott team.”
The lawyer continued, “For Mr. Scott to allow his lawyers and spokespeople to make the reckless and untrue statement that just because he was not indicted means he’s blame-free is arrogant and insulting to the memory of 10 year old Ezra as well as the other victims of this terrible night.”
Hilliard also accused Scott and his team of only focusing “on how the report’s release date hurts their album sales instead of the facts contained inside of the report.” It’s referring to a report claiming that one of Scott’s attorneys said the release of the Houston Police Department’s 1,266-page investigation was intentionally timed to hurt the rapper’s new album “Utopia”.
In his statement, Hilliard also pointed out that contract worker Reece Wheeler warned Shawna Boardman, one of the private security directors, through text at 9 P.M. The text read, “Pull tons over the rail unconscious. There’s panic in people eyes. This could get worse quickly. I know they’ll try to fight through it but I would want it on the record that I didn’t advise this to continue. Someone’s going to end up dead.”
Blount was sitting on his father Treston’s shoulders when the countdown to Scott’s performance began at NRG Park back on November 5. He and his father stayed at the back because they thought it would be much safer, but once Scott took the stage, people started pushing forward.
Amid the crowd surge, the father lost consciousness and the young Blount fell to the ground. The boy suffered from severe damage to his brain, kidney and liver after being kicked, stepped on and trampled by other concertgoers. The 10-year-old died ten days after he was put in medically-induced coma.
In the recently-released 1,266-page report from Houston Police, Scott shared that he wasn’t made aware of the severity of the situation even after he was told to stop his show early. The musician said that the first time he noticed something went wrong was when he was lifted on a platform above the stage. That was when he noticed someone down near the stage who was receiving medical attention.
As he performed two or three songs on the elevated platform, he saw one of the audience members waving their hands at him near the stage. He quickly told the crowd to back up and get medical attention to the area. He also noted that at one point, he asked the crowd to put up a middle finger if they were good. As he got overwhelming responses from the folks, he thought everything was fine.
The ex-boyfriend of Kylie Jenner further said he learned that something happened only when he returned to his trailer. After a friend told him that two concertgoers were getting CPR, he claimed that he started wondering what was actually happening. He later found out that some people died and dozens were injured at Astroworld when he got home around 2 or 3 A.M.
While he is currently facing civil lawsuits, Scott will not be indicted on any criminal charges stemming from the concert.
[Via]
