Travis Scott will not face criminal charges over Astroworld tragedy

Travis Scott will not face criminal charges over the Astroworld crowd surge incident, a grand jury has ruled.

On Thursday (June 29), a grand jury issued six “no-bills” around the November 2021 tragedy, according to Rolling Stone. A “no-bill” is used when a jury can’t find enough evidence to indict a defendant of a crime.

The hearing was held to determine whether there would be any criminal charges brought against organisers of Astroworld, a festival in Houston, Texas for which Scott was headlining.

During the rappers performance, a deadly crowd crush resulted in the deaths of ten people between the ages of nine and 27, and thousands more injured.

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No criminal charges were given to Scott, or the festival manager Brent Silberstein, John Junell of Live Nation, security planners Seyth and Shawna Boardman, and former employee at event production company BWG, Emily Ockenden.

According to the BBC, Scott’s lawyer, Kent Schaffer said the ruling was “a great relief” to his client.

Despite criminal charges being ruled out, the rapper – along with Live Nation and ScoreMore – still face a number of civil lawsuits, amounting to billions of dollars in damagers, from those affected by the tragedy,

Lawsuits filed by multiple victims remain active in Texas state courts.

Schaffer, has said in a statement acquired by Rolling Stone: “My client Travis Scott will not be charged with criminal charges or any wrongdoing for his involvement with AstroWorld festival.”

“Today’s decision by the Harris County District Attorney confirms what we have known all along, that Travis Scott is not responsible for the AstroWorld tragedy.”

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“This is consistent with investigative reporting by numerous media outlets and federal and state government reports that have squarely placed the onus for event safety crises on organizers, operators and contractors — not performers,” Schaffer continued.

The statement concludes: “While waiting patiently for the District Attorney’s decision to not file charges, Travis Scott has been inaccurately and wrongly singled out, despite stopping the show three separate times and being unaware of the events as they were unfolding.

“Now that this chapter is closed, we hope for the government efforts to focus on what is most important — stopping future heartbreaking tragedies like AstroWorld from ever occurring again.”

Becky Buckle is Mixmag’s Multimedia Editor, follow her on Twitter