The final remaining wrongful death lawsuit stemming from Travis Scott’s Astroworld tragedy has been settled in court, according to reports.
The suit was filed by the family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount — the youngest person killed during the concert crush. During the Astroworld concert, Ezra’s father Treston said that his son was sitting on his shoulders when they were crushed by the crowd. Treston lost consciousness and when he came to, could not find his son. He said Ezra was found at a Houston hospital, severely injured, and died several days later.
Jury selection for the lawsuit was slated to begin on September 10, however, Blount family attorney Scott West said a settlement was reached this week. Scott, Live Nation, and others connected to the event including Apple were named in the suit.
In an email statement, West said “the family will continue its journey to heal, but never forget the joy that Ezra brought to everyone around him.”
The other nine wrongful death suits were settled earlier this month, including the suit filed by the family of 23-year-old Madison Dubiski of Houston, which was set to go to trial. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed due to a gag order.
The first trial related to the injury cases stemming from the event, focusing on seven injury cases, were scheduled by Judge Hawkins for October 15. Around 2,400 injury cases are still pending, while over 4,000 plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits after the tragedy.
Plaintiffs have alleged in court filings that the deaths and injuries stemming from the concert were caused by negligent planning, pointing to overcapacity and lack of safety at the event. During the November 2021 concert, attendees were packed so tightly that many could not breathe or move their arms, killing 10 people from compression asphyxia — which has been compared to being crushed by a car.
Last month, a judge declined Scott’s motion to dismiss the hundreds of lawsuits stemming from the festival. Several others named in the lawsuit — including Drake and Epic Records — were successfully dismissed, and Scott’s attorneys attempted to follow suit, claiming he was not responsible for safety at the event. Houston Judge Kristen Hawkins issued a one-page order denying Scott’s request that he and his touring company XX Global be dropped from the case.
Earlier this year, news broke that organizers had doubts about the festival’s capacity before the event. According to new filings obtained by the Houston Landing, the event’s safety director Seyth Boardman told the festival’s operations director he was worried about cramming so many people in front of the main stage to see Scott perform, noting, “I feel like there is no way we are going to fit 50k in front of that stage.”
Reports also found serious issues with the site plan; an employee of the event production company BWG settled on a site plan that made room for 44,000 people in the general viewing area, plus 3,500 in a VIP area. However, if they had used the correct seven square feet per person standard, they would have known the site plan had capacity for 32,000 people in general admission and 2,500 people in a VIP pen, which marks a whopping 15,500 short of ticketed attendance.
One of the most staggering statements regarding the safety of the festival was made by a festival dispatcher in the command center just minutes before Scott took the stage.
“I would pull the plug but that’s just me,” the dispatcher wrote in a message that was just made public last year. “Someone’s going to end up dead.”
