Travis Scott criticised over his team’s response to Astroworld police report

completemusicupdate.com:

Travis Scott and his legal team have been dubbed “stunningly tone deaf” for criticising the timing of the publication of a police report about the Astroworld tragedy.

The Houston Police Department made that lengthy document available on Friday, just as Scott released his new album ‘Utopia’, his first since the fatal crowd surge that occurred during his headline set at the 2021 edition of the festival he founded.On Friday, a representative for Scott told TMZ: “The timing of the Houston Police Department report’s release, coinciding with the launch of Travis Scott’s highly anticipated album, is anything but coincidental … it is outrageous that HPD has chosen to resort to tactics that attempt to discredit Travis and his team, casting doubt on how the unfortunate events at Astroworld actually transpired while deflecting blame from their own critical failures”.Responding to those remarks, a lawyer working for the family of one of those who died during the crowd surge, ten year old Ezra Blount, said in his own statement to TMZ: “For an artist making his living with music, these are stunningly tone deaf comments about this preventable tragedy that took so many lives and injured so many”.Ten people died and hundreds more were injured during the crowd surge at Astroworld 2021, which took place in Houston’s NRG Park.

A criminal investigation got underway almost immediately, with the city’s police department investigating whether the actions of Scott and various other people working on the Live Nation-promoted festival contributed to the crowd surge and therefore the fatalities.That investigation was completed last month, with HPD’s report then going to a grand jury to assess whether any crimes had been committed.