Travis Scott is being sued for $1 million by Astroworld security guards.
The 30-year-old rapper – who has been subjected to multiple lawsuits in the wake of the tragedy, which saw hundreds injured and 10 dead after a crowd surge – has been hit by more legal action after Samuel and Jackson Bush claimed they have been left permanently scarred by what they witnessed at the event in Houston, Texas, on 5 November.
According to documents obtained by TMZ, the pair – who were hired to work at the festival by AJ Melino and Associates – claimed 50,000 people had bought tickets but many more were in attendance, which contributed to the problem.
Jackson told how he saw several lifeless bodies receiving CPR and even pulled a body from the crowd as thousands of fans surged towards the state.
As well as Travis, the security guards also want Live Nation, AJ Melino, Cactus Jack Records, and more, to be held accountable for the tragedy.
Last week, a $2 billion lawsuit was filed on behalf of 280 concertgoers, while many other fans have also lodged legal action.
Travis was performing during the surge and his lawyer recently insisted the rapper “truly did not know what was going on” in the crowd until the following day.
His attorney, Edwin F. McPherson, said: “Obviously was a systemic breakdown that we need to get to the bottom of before we start pointing fingers at anyone.
“But clearly the important thing is that [the news] never got to Travis, it never got to Travis’ crew. He’s up there trying to perform; he does not have any ability to know what’s going on down below, certainly on a mass level.
“Travis didn’t really understand the full effect of everything until the next morning. Truly he did not know what was going on.
“Understand that when he’s up on the stage and he has flashpots going off around him and he has an ear monitor that has music blasting through it and his own voice, he can’t hear anything, he can’t see anything.”
The news comes after Edwin previously accused law enforcement of making “inconsistent messages” about the tragedy.
He added: “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.’
“Yet, just a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis.”
The chief said local officials didn’t have the power to end the performance, insisting the “ultimate authority to end the show is with the production and the entertainer” – although he later said he didn’t want to “point fingers” until the on-going investigation had concluded.
But Travis’ lawyer added: “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.
“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.
“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.”
Travis will play for the funerals of those who died, while he and his Cactus Jack Foundation are also teaming up with BetterHelp, an online portal providing mental health support, to offer free one-on-one virtual therapy sessions for anyone affected by the tragedy.
