Eight died and hundreds were injured at the Astroworld Festival on Nov. 5.
Travis Scott's lawyer is speaking out. Less than a week after eight people died and hundreds were injured at Astroworld Festival, the 30-year-old rapper's lawyer is discussing the ongoing investigation.
"There has been multiple finger-pointing, much of which has been by city officials, who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from original statements," Edwin McPherson said in a statement given to multiple news outlets.
"Houston Police Chief Troy Finner was quoted in the New York Times as saying 'You cannot just close when you got 50,000 and over 50,000 individuals. We have to worry about rioting, riots, when you have a group that’s that young,'" McPherson's statement continued. "Yet, just a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis."
"It was reported that the Operations Plan designated that only the festival director and executive producers have authority to stop the show, neither of which is part of Travis’s crew," the statement continued. "This also runs afoul of HPD’s own previous actions when it shut down the power and sound at this very festival when the performance ran over five minutes back in 2019."
McPherson concluded his statement by saying, "Investigations should start proceeding over finger-pointing so that together, we can identify exactly what transpired and how we can prevent anything like this from happening again."
Additionally, Scott and his team released a statement to ET, noting that "over the last week, Travis Scott and his team have been actively exploring routes of connection with each and every family affected by the tragedy through the appropriate liaisons."
"He is distraught by the situation and desperately wishes to share his condolences and provide aid to them as soon as possible, but wants to remain respectful of each family’s wishes on how they’d best like to be connected," the statement continued, adding that those families that want to reach out to the rapper's team should do so by emailing AW21information@gmail.com.
The statements came one day after the rapper and others were sued by of the father of E.B., a 9-year-old boy "who was trampled and catastrophically injured" at the concert, per attorneys Ben Crump, Alex Hilliard, and Bob Hilliard's press release.
The release additionally noted that E.B. "sustained life-threatening injuries and is currently being hospitalized in a medically induced coma on life support in an attempt to combat his brain, liver, and kidney trauma."
The suit alleges negligence in crowd control, failure to provide proper medical attention, hiring, training, supervision, and retention. The lawsuit additionally claims that the defendants failed to stop Scott's performance "until over 40 minutes after city officials said the 'mass casualty event' had begun."
E.B.'s wasn't the first lawsuit to be filed against Scott and others following tragedy in Houston, Texas. ET confirmed that 10 lawsuits have been filed in regards to the Astroworld Festival incident.
Following the tragedy, ET learned that Scott is partnering with BetterHelp to offer free mental health services to those who attended the concert. Variety reported that Scott is also providing refunds for all attendees who bought tickets to the festival. Multiple outlets additionally reported that Scott is covering the funeral costs of the eight people who died.
Scott previously released a statement on Twitter, writing, "I am absolutely devastated by what took place last night."
"My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival. Houston PD has my total support as they continue to look into the tragic loss of life," he continued. "I am committed to working together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need. Thank you to Houston PD, Fire Department and NRG Park for their support. Love you all."
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