Attorneys representing some of those killed and injured during the deadly 2021 Astroworld Festival incident are accusing Travis Scott of violating a gag order in an effort to influence possible jurors ahead of a potential trial.
According to CBS 11 News, Scott announced an initiative that seeks to fund an effort to address safety challenges for festivals and large-scale events earlier in March.
Attorney Bob Hilliard said Scott’s announcement on concert safety touched on an issue that is the focus of lawsuits and several investigations against the rapper following the disaster of last year.
Hilliard represents the family of Ezra Blount, the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during the stampede.
However, Scott’s attorneys are arguing that preventing the rapper from speaking on the incident or any other issue would violate his constitutional rights.
Scott founded the Astroworld Festival, an annual event held at the former site of Six Flags AstroWorld, in 2018.
However, the November 5, 2021, event turned deadly after fans pushed forward in attempts to get closer to the rapper as he performed, causing a stampede that left hundreds of people injured — twenty-five of whom were taken to the hospital — and ten people dead.
According to medical examiners with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston, the ten victims died from compression asphyxia.
The examiners added that the pressure from the crowd surge was so great that it squeezed all the air from the victims’ lungs.
Since then, attorneys for victims and their families from the event have filed roughly four hundred lawsuits against the rapper and Live Nation.
