Contract Worker Forewarned of Fatality Prior to Fatal Stampede at Travis Scott’s 2021 Concert

Before hip-hop sensation Travis Scott performed at the lethal 2021 Astroworld festival, a contract worker, troubled by the sight of attendees being crushed, conveyed a chilling prediction to an event coordinator stating, “Someone’s going to end up dead,” as per the details of a police report disclosed last Friday.

The text messages sent by the contract worker for security, Reece Wheeler, were part of an array of instances listed in the substantial 1,300-page report where festival staff pointed out issues and cautioned about potential fatal outcomes. The report consists of transcripts from 911 calls made by attendees and summaries from police interrogations, one of which was with Scott in the days following the incident.

The stampede that occurred on November 5, 2021, at the open-air festival in Houston resulted in the death of 10 participants, their ages ranging from 9 to 27. The official reason for the deaths was compression asphyxia, compared by an expert to being squashed by a car. The festival drew a crowd of approximately 50,000 people.

Reece Wheeler alerted Shawna Boardman, one of the directors of private security, at 9 p.m., expressing, “Numerous people are unconscious after being pulled over the rail. Panic is visible in people’s eyes. This situation could escalate rapidly.” Following this, Wheeler messaged, “I understand they might try to endure, but I want it documented that I was against the continuation. Someone’s going to end up dead.”

Travis Scott’s concert commenced at 9:02 p.m. Upon reviewing footage from the concert’s livestream, police investigators reported hearing a faint voice stating, “Stop the show,” at 9:13 p.m., and again at 9:16 p.m. and 9:22 p.m.

In a police interrogation dated August 19, 2022, Boardman’s lawyers informed investigators that Boardman believed the situation was “not as severe as Reece Wheeler had communicated” and hence, chose not to forward Wheeler’s warnings to others.

Despite the investigation into the event, a grand jury decided against indicting anyone, including Scott, Boardman, and four others.

During an interview with the police a couple of days post-concert, Scott informed investigators that while he did observe a single individual close to the stage requiring medical aid, the crowd, in general, appeared to be enjoying the performance and he did not notice any significant issues.

“He asserted that if he had heard the crowd requesting him to stop the show, he would have acted accordingly,” police stated in their summary of Scott’s interview.

Rapper Drake, who joined Scott on stage, expressed to the police that the crowd’s activities were hard to monitor from the stage and he did not hear any cries from concertgoers to halt the performance.

Drake was informed about the catastrophe later that evening by his manager and received additional information from social media, as summarized by the police.

Marty Wallgren, an employee of a security consulting firm hired by the festival, stated to the police that when he went backstage and attempted to inform representatives for Scott and Drake about the need to terminate the concert due to people getting injured and possibly fatalities, he was informed, “Drake still has three more songs,” according to an interview summary.

Daniel Johary, a university student who found himself caught in the surge of concertgoers and utilized his experience as an EMT in Israel to assist an injured woman, reported to investigators that hundreds of people had called for Scott to stop the music and the pleas were audible “from everywhere.”

“He stated staff members in the vicinity signaled thumbs-up and did not care,” as per the police report.

Richard Rickeada, a retired Houston police officer employed by a private security company at the festival, shared with investigators that from the concert’s morning, the situation was “pretty much chaotic,” as per a police summary of his interview. His doubts and queries regarding whether the concert should take place were ignored, he said.

Roughly 23 minutes into the concert, cameraman Gregory Hoffman radioed into the show’s production trailer warning that “people were dying.” Hoffman was handling a large crane equipped with a television camera which was swarmed with concertgoers needing medical assistance, as reported by the police.

In response, the production team radioed Hoffman to inquire when they could resume the operation of the crane.

Following Hoffman’s grave warning, Salvatore Livia, who was appointed to direct the live show, informed police that people in the production trailer acknowledged that something was amiss, but “they were detached from the reality of the situation occurring outside,” as per a police summary of Livia’s interview.

Christopher Gates, a 22-year-old concertgoer at the time, reported to the police that by the second or third song of Scott’s performance, he stumbled upon around five people on the ground who he believed were deceased.

Their bodies were “lifeless, pale, and their lips were blue/purple,” according to the police report. Non-medics from the crowd provided CPR.

The police report was made public roughly a month after the Houston grand jury declined to indict Scott on any criminal charges relating to the fatal concert. Police Chief Troy Finner stated that the report was released so that people could “review the entire investigation” and form their own judgements regarding the case. Following the grand jury’s decision, Finner refrained from commenting on the overall conclusion of his department’s investigation or if the police should have intervened to stop the concert sooner.

The release of the report coincided with the launch of Scott’s new album, “Utopia.”

Over 500 lawsuits were filed over the fatalities and injuries at the concert, with many targeting concert promoter Live Nation and Scott. Some have since been settled.

Finley provided the report from Norfolk, Virginia.

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

More AP coverage of the Astroworld festival can be found here: https://bigbignews.net/astroworld-festival-deaths

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