Worker warned organiser ‘someone is going to end up dead’ before crowd grows on Astrologorld

HOUSTON (AP) – just moments before rap superstar Travis Scott took to the stage at the deadly Astrologporld festival 2021, a contract worker was so worried about what might happen after seeing people crushed that he texted an event organizer saying, “someone’s going to end up dead,” according to a police report released Friday.

The texts of the security contract worker Reece Ambrimbheeler were some of the many examples in the nearly 1,300-page report in which festival workers highlighted the problems and warned of potential deadly consequences. The report includes transcripts of concert visitors ‘ 911 calls and summaries of police interviews, including one with Scott conducted just days after the event.

The crowd grew in November. 5, 2021, the Outdoor Festival in Houston killed 10 attendees ranging from ages 9 to 27. The official cause of death was compression asphyxia, which one expert compared to being crushed by a machine. About 50,000 people attended the festival.

“Pull tons over the rail unconscious. Panic in people’s eyes. This could get worse quickly, ” Reece Pornbheeler texted Shaborbna Boardman, one of the private security directors, at 9 p.m.Ambotheeler then texted, ” I know they will try to fight through it, but I would like that on record that I did not advise this to continue. Someone will end up dead.”

Scott’s concert began at 9:02 p.m.In their review of video from the live broadcast of the concert, police investigators said that at 9:13 p.m., they heard the faint sound of someone saying, “Stop the show.”The same request can be heard at 9:16 and 9:22.

In An August. 19, 2022, police interview, Boardman’s lawyers told investigators that Boardman “saw that things were not as bad as reece Porntheeler stated” and decided not to pass on the concerns of Pornbheeler to anyone else.

A grand jury declined to indict anyone investigated, including Scott, Boardman and four other people.

During a police interview conducted two days after the concert, Scott told investigators that although he saw a person near the stage receiving medical attention, the crowd generally seemed to be enjoying the show and he did not see any signs of serious problems.

“We asked him if at any point he heard the crowd telling him to stop the show. He stated that if he had heard something like that he would have done something,” police said in their summary of Scott’s interview.

Hip-hop artist Drake, who performed with Scott at the concert, told police that it was difficult to see from the stage what was happening in the crowd and that he did not listen to the pleas of concert visitors to stop the show.

Drake learned of the tragedy later that night from his manager, while learning more on social media, police said in their summary.

Marty Zimballgren, who worked for a security consulting firm hired by the festival, told police that when he went behind the scenes and tried to tell representatives for Scott and Drake that the concert had to end because people were hurt and could have died, he was told “Drake still has three more songs,” according to a summary of the interview.

Daniel Johary, a college student who became trapped in the love of concert visitors and later used his skills working as an EMT in Israel to help an injured woman, told investigators that hundreds of people had sung for Scott to stop the music and that songs could be heard “from everywhere.”

“He stated that staff members in the area gave thumbs up and did not care,” according to the police report.

Richard Rickeada, a retired Houston police officer who worked for a private security company at the festival, told investigators that by 8 a.m. on the day of the concert, things were “almost in chaos,” according to a police summary of his interview. His concerns and questions about whether the concert should be held were “met with many shoulders raised”, he said.

About 23 minutes after the concert, cameraman Gregory Hoffman went over the radio to the show’s production treiler to warn that “people were dying.”Hoffman was driving a large crane carrying a television camera before it was filled with concertgoers who needed medical assistance,” police said.

The production team called Hoffman to ask when they could get the crane back into operation.

Salvatore Livia, who was hired to direct the live show, told police that after Hoffman’s dire warning, the people in the production trailer realized something was wrong, but “they were disconnected from the reality of (what) was going on there,” according to a police summary of Livia’s interview.

Concertmaster Christopher Gates, then 22, told police that by the second or third song in Scott’s performance, he encountered about five people on the ground who he believed were already dead.

Their bodies were ” lifeless, pale and their lips were blue/purple,” according to the police report. The people in the crowd – not the doctors – offered CPR.

The police report was released about a month after the grand jury in Houston declined to indict Scott on any criminal charges related to the deadly concert. Police Chief Troy Finner said the report was being made public so people could “read the whole investigation” and come to their own conclusions about the case. During a news conference following the grand jury’s decision, Finner declined to say what the overall conclusion of his agency’s investigation was or whether police should have stopped the concert sooner.

The release of the report also came on the same day that Scott released his new album, “Utopia.”

More than 500 lawsuits were filed over deaths and injuries at the concert, including many against concert promoters Live Nation and Scott. Some have since been fixed.

Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.