Astroworld Tragedy Claims Another Victim

The tragedy that occurred at the Travis Scott Astroworld event has claimed another victim, the ninth person to have died from injuries sustained during the crush of concertgoers.

By Doug Norrie | Updated

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The tragedy that occurred during the Astroworld event last week has claimed another victim Variety reports. 22-year-old Bharti Shahani has passed away from injuries sustained during the Travis Scott concert. Shahani is the ninth person to have died after crowds at the concert surged and a number of different participants were trampled in the crush. It is an unbelievably tragic and sad event, with many people injured after crowds surged to out-of-control levels. Details are still emerging about how such a devastating set of circumstances could have come together to end in such tragedy. 

The death of Shahani came after she had sustained numerous injures last Friday. According to the Variety reporting, Shahani was a student at Texas A&M University before her passing. She was one of the many concert attendees who were part of the crowd moving towards the stage when Scott was set to perform. But allegedly, because of the setup of the arena, there was no point of egress for those who wanted to step aside and it led to people being trapped. 

The Astroworld event has turned into a tragedy of the highest order. According to multiple reports, on November 5th, somewhere around 9:30 PM headliner Travis Scott was set to take the stage. In the moment, the excitement of the performance appears to have triggered a stampede of sorts with some of the 50,000 concertgoers surging towards the stage. This led to attendees not being able to escape and some ultimately lost their lives. Prior to Shahani, eight people had been confirmed dead from the event. As of this writing, a 9-year-old Ezra Blount was on life support. He had been on his father’s shoulders in the crowd when the latter lost consciousness in the crush. Blount was carried away by another concertgoer, but not before he had sustained major injuries. He is reported to have suffered major internal organ damage and brain swelling. 

In addition to the nine people who passed away in the Astroworld incident, another 25 were hospitalized after sustaining injures. According to multiple reports from the venue, barricades near the stage didn’t allow for attendees to move beyond a certain point once the larger crowd began closing in. This led to something like a pressing effect and there were a number of people who have said they passed out from lack of oxygen. This incident has already set off civil lawsuits and litigation against Travis Scott as well as promoter Live Nation. Travis Scott did take to social media to initially respond to the events last Friday. 

There are still details emerging from the Astroworld event and investigations are underway to see if this tragedy could have been prevented. More details are sure to emerge over what happened and it stands to reason there will now be more stringent protocols put into place at concerts, especially large festivals, to avoid something like this ever happening again. We will have more details on the event as they emerge and this is likely to be in the courts for years to come.