HOUSTON, (Reuters) – Houston’s police chief said yesterday he met briefly with hip-hop star Travis Scott to voice his “public safety concerns” before the rapper took the stage for a weekend performance that ended with eight people killed and dozens more injured in a stampede.
Chief Troy Finner publicly disclosed conveying words of caution to Scott in person as legal action mounted on behalf of concertgoers crushed in Friday’s deadly crowd surge, while police pursued a criminal probe of the tragedy.
Scott, the hometown recording star who was performing on stage as headliner of his Astroworld festival when the incident occurred, canceled an appearance scheduled for this weekend at a similar outdoor event in Las Vegas, a source close to Scott said.
Scott said yesterday he would cover all funeral costs and offer aid to those affected. He is also working with law enforcement and city officials to “respectfully and appropriately connect” with victims and their families, according to a statement.
The victims were crushed in a surge of fans near the stage at NRG Park at around 9:30 p.m., with some unable to breathe and others trampled underfoot. Hundreds of others in the sellout crowd of 50,000 were injured throughout the day.
Fans described a chaotic scene after a steady escalation of disruptive behavior over several hours.
Finner said in a statement released via Twitter that he met with Scott and his head of security “for a few moments” prior to the headliner’s ill-fated performance.
“The meeting was brief and respectful and a chance for me to share my public safety concerns as chief of police,” Finner wrote, making no explicit mention of concertgoers’ accounts of gate-crashing and increasingly unruly behavior throughout the day among the largely young crowd.