Travis Scott was on stage when eight people died on the ground below at his Astroworld show, but his lawyer wants everyone to stop looking at him.
In a lengthy statement issued late Wednesday, the Houston rapper’s lawyer, Edwin F. McPherson, tried to pivot blame back to the city, not Scott, for the chaos that ensued at Friday’s deadly concert.
“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,” McPherson said.
“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.”
Since Friday, investigators have been scrambling to figure out what went wrong at NRG Park, where an out-of-control crowd surged toward the stage in a muddle of confusion.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed already, many naming Scott and accusing him of negligence for not stopping the show.
In rare public comments, Scott has said he is “absolutely devastated” but denied knowing how bad the situation was on the ground.
“Any time I can make out anything that’s going on, I’d stop the show and help them get the help they need, you know?” he said in an Instagram video Saturday night. “I could never imagine this situation.”
City officials, including Police Chief Samuel Peña, have publicly said that Scott was responsible nonetheless.
No criminal charges have been filed yet.
“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,” McPherson said.
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