Medical examiner rules Astroworld victims died of compression asphyxia

The Harris County Medical Examiner has ruled the deaths of ten people who died in a crowd crush at Travis Scott’s Astrowold festival at NRG Park in Houston, Texas, last month were caused by compression asphyxia.

The report was released yesterday (December 16) and concluded that all ten deaths were accidental. Only one of the victims was found to have other contributing factors, cited as “combined toxic effects of cocaine, methamphetamine and ethanol”.

Some 300 people were injured in the crowd surge, which occurred during Scott’s headline performance, with 25 hospitalised for their injuries. Victims were trapped by barricades on three sides when the 50,000 person crowd pushed towards the stage.

The ten victims who died were aged between nine and 27, with the youngest, Ezra Blount, passing away in hospital days after the tragedy.

Blount’s family were one of nearly 2,800 plaintiffs to file lawsuits against parties including Scott, Live Nation, Drake, NRG Energy, the Harris County Sports Authority, and Scott’s companies Jack Enterprises and Cactus Jack.

Earlier this month, Scott filed requests to be dismissed from multiple lawsuits levelled against him, with a representative for the rapper arguing he is “not legally liable” for the incident. Live Nation and its subsidiary ScoreMore, Astroworld’s promoters, also denied in filed documents all the allegations against them.

Speaking out on the tragedy earlier this month in his first public interview since the tragedy, Scott said: “Fans come to the show to have a good experience and I have a responsibility to figure out what happened here. I have a responsibility to figure out a solution.”

Reports later surfaced that he had been taken off the Coachella 2022 lineup, after more than 60,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling on festival organisers to remove him.

Earlier this month it was reported that half of the victims’ families had rejected Scott’s offer to cover funeral expenses.