The family of a 9-year-old boy who was severely injured at Astroworld is suing Travis Scott and Live Nation.
The youngest known victim of the Astroworld catastrophe, Ezra Blount, is still in a medically induced coma and on life support after almost being “trampled to death” at the Houston event, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.
Well-known civil rights attorney Ben Crump is acting as the family’s lawyer, with Blount and his father pursuing general and exemplary damages from Travis and Live Nation. Legal docs say that Ezra was “suddenly forced to watch in terror as several concertgoers were injured and killed” as the crowd swelled. The boy was sitting on his father Treston Blount’s shoulders when the audience devolved into chaos.
“He kept screaming, ‘I can’t breathe.’ But everyone was pushing. It was so tight with no exits. His dad couldn’t breathe at all and passed out. We don’t really know what happened to Ezra after that,” Ezra’s grandmother Tericia Blount told Rolling Stone. Treston later found Ezra listed as a John Doe at a local hospital.
“This young child and his family will face life-altering trauma from this day forward, a reality that nobody expects when they buy concert tickets. Concerts and music festivals such as this are meant to be a safe place for people of all ages to enjoy music in a controlled environment. None of that was true about the Astroworld Festival,” Crump said in a statement. “This little boy is currently fighting for his life, and his parents will never know the same child they entered Astroworld with.”
The filing shows that Ezra was “kicked, stepped on, and trampled” as the audience surged and other concertgoers were picking up “unconscious bodies of friends and strangers and surfed them over the top of the crowd, hoping to send them to safety.”
Ezra endured damage to his lung, liver, kidney, and brain, which will diminish his long-term health and his “ability to grow and thrive.” The lawsuit accuses Travis Scott, Live Nation, and other groups of gross negligence, which led to Ezra’s wounds, saying the aforementioned entities “egregiously failed in their duty to protect the health, safety, and lives” of attendees. Crump also specifically pointed out that there wasn’t enough security or emergency medical support to prevent a tragedy of this magnitude.
