About 50,000 people attended the November 5 Astroworld music festival at NRG Park organized by rapper Travis Scott when the crowd surged towards the stage causing a crush that led to the deaths of several people and many injured. Ezra Blount, a nine-year-old Dallas boy who was among those injured, died on Sunday.
He has become the 10th, and youngest, person to die from injuries sustained at the Astroworld festival. According to his family, Ezra went to the concert with his father, Treston Blount. Ezra was on his father’s shoulders at a point during the concert so that he could stay out of and above the crowd, ABC13 reported. However, when the crowd surge began, his father passed out and fell. Ezra also fell and was trampled.
Ezra was taken to a hospital, separated from his father. His relatives later found him alone at the hospital in a coma, suffering from major organ damage. He also had severe brain swelling, according to his family members.
“The Blount family tonight is grieving the incomprehensible loss of their precious young son,” family attorney Ben Crump said in a news release Sunday night after announcing the death of Ezra, which occurred at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. “This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration.”
Ezra’s family disclosed last week that they have filed a lawsuit against the event organizers and performers at the concert. The lawsuit, filed by Crump, alleges “negligence regarding crowd control, medical attention and event staffing,” ABC News reported.
“He’s a small, innocent child,” Ezra’s grandfather Bernon Blount told KTRK last week while Ezra was in the hospital. “He didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve it at all. He’s just coming into town to see one of his favorite artists and to be trampled like that and really left the hospital with no one knowing where he was. That’s heartbreaking.”
A GoFundMe was set up to help Ezra’s family with expenses.
A 14-year-old child was among those who died after the tragedy. A 16-year old was also killed while the other victims included two 21-year-olds, two 23-year-olds and a 27-year-old, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said after the concert. The age of one other victim is not known. Last week, a 22-year-old college student also died after she was critically injured at the festival, marking the ninth person killed in the tragedy. Around 11 people were taken to the hospital and nearly 300 were treated for injuries at the concert site.
“This is now a criminal investigation that’s going to involve our homicide division as well as narcotics, and we’re going to get down to the bottom of it,” Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference after the concert. Mayor Turner said the investigation may go on for quite some time to determine what exactly happened. He said officials were looking at where “missteps may have occurred” at the concert and will speak with witnesses, representatives of the concert and Scott as well.
Scott posted videos to his Instagram story after the tragedy, saying he is working with officials to understand what happened. He also vowed to help the families of the victims. “My fans really mean the world to me,” he said. “I am honestly just devastated.”
“Any time I could make out anything that was going on, I stopped the show and helped them get the help they need,” he added. “I could just never imagine the severity of the situation.”
Investigators have said they are reviewing surveillance video provided by Live Nation Entertainment, which organized the concert. Various clips shared on social media by people will also be looked at, Houston police said.
Scott, whose real name is Jacques Webster, pleaded guilty to a public disorder charge in 2018 after he was accused of urging people to rush the stage at a concert in Arkansas. He also reportedly paid almost $7,000 to two people who said they were injured at the event.
