All 10 of the victims at Travis Scott’s Astroworld concert died from compression asphyxia, according to a report from the medical examiner.
One victim is cited as having a contributory cause of “combined toxic effects of cocaine, methamphetamine and ethanol,” but the primarily cause for all of the victims was essentially being suffocated by external pressure — technically defined as “respiration prevented by external pressure on the body.” The report was issued Thursday by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston.
While initial reports speculated that at least some of the victims had died of drug-related causes, with the exception of the one case of contributory causes, that appears to be inaccurate.
The 10 victims died, and hundreds were injured, after segments of the 50,000-strong crowd surged during Scott’s headlining set at the concert, which was held at Houston’s NRG Park on Nov. 5.
According to a report in the Washington Post, at least seven of the 10 victims were clustered in a small area enclosed on three sides by metal barriers that became dangerously crowded. The Post found that most of those who died were close to each other in the viewing area’s south quadrant, where witnesses described people collapsing under the pressure of the crowd.
The victims who died included a dancer, an aspiring border agent, a student athlete, a computer programming student, a district manager at AT&T, a marketer, a pair of best friends and a nine-year-old boy. Their names are Mirza Baig, 27; Rodolfo Pena, 23; Madison Dubiski, 23; Bharti Shahani, 22; Axel Avila, 21; Franco Patino, 21; Jacob Jurinek, 20; Brianna Rodriguez, 16; John Hilgert, 14; and Ezra Blount, 9.
Travis Scott spoke out for the first time about the Astroworld tragedy when Charlamagne tha God released a nearly hour long discussion on Dec. 9. The somber back and forth was posted on Charlamagne’s YouTube channel.
Scott was asked early on in the interview when he knew that there were fan injuries, and ultimately deaths, at the Nov. 5 festival that left 10 people dead and scores injured.
“I didn’t know the exact details until minutes before the press conference [after my set],” he said. “And even at that moment you’re like, ‘Wait, what?’
“People pass out, things happen at concerts, but something like that…” he continued, trailing off.
Scott also denied hearing any distress from the crowd that would have caused him to stop the show.
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