HOUSTON: A grand jury in Texas on Thursday decided not to indict rapper Travis Scott and five others over the 2021 Astroworld music festival stampede that killed 10 people, Xinhua reported.
District Attorney Kim Ogg said the Harris County grand jury had weighed criminal charges against Scott and the others and found no criminal element and no single individual was criminally responsible.
Kent Schaffer, a lawyer for Scott, said his client stopped the concert three times and was unaware of the tragedy as it unfolded.
“Today’s decision by the Harris County district attorney confirms what we have known all along – that Travis Scott is not responsible for the AstroWorld tragedy,” Schaffer said in a statement.
“Now that this chapter is closed, we hope for government efforts to focus on what is most important – stopping future tragedies like Astroworld from ever occurring again.”
Five others, including Brent Silberstein, the festival manager of the concert’s organiser Live Nation, were also cleared.
Ten people, aged between nine and 27, died from compression asphyxiation when an over-packed crowd of 50,000 attendees began pushing towards the stage during the concert at Houston’s NRG Park on Nov 5, 2021. At least 4,900 attendees were injured. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
