Getty |Thomas Shea
Eight lives were claimed during the tragic crowd surging incident that occurred at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival on Nov. 5. Some concert-goers were critically injured, including 9-year-old Ezra Blount who is currently fighting for his life.
The young boy attended the concert last week with his father Treston Blount. Ezra’s grandfather told CNN that he was sitting on his dad’s shoulders in order to avoid the large crowd, but as Scott took the stage, people struggled to push past towards the front, squeezing Treston’s body into the tightly packed sea of frantic crowd-goers and eventually causing him to faint.
“All the people pushed in and he could not breathe so he ended up passing out because of all the pressure that was being applied to his body. And when he passed out, Ezra fell off his shoulder and fell into the crowd,” Bernon Blount explained.
When Treston regained consciousness, he struggled to find Ezra, only to be notified hours later that a festival attendee had taken him to Texas Children’s hospital where he lie in a coma desperately clinging to survive. The precious 9-year-old was trampled during the chaos.
“….He had cardiac arrest which damaged his heart,” Bernon said of Ezra’s injuries. “He has damage to the liver, his lungs … and on top of that, he has swelling on his brain.”
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Ezra Blount’s case is included in nearly 17 lawsuits that have been filed stemming from the deadly incident. The victims are alleging that Travis Scott, the festival’s organization Scoremore and Live Nation are responsible for the horrific crowd surge. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump will represent Ezra’s family along with a few other victims in the suit.
Blount said his family is “devastated” by the incident and demands accountability.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the family with Ezra’s medical expenses.
“My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival. Houston Police Department has my total support as they continue to look into the tragic loss of life,” he tweeted on Nov. 6. “I am committed to working together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need. Thank you Houston PD, Fire Department, and NRG Park for their immediate response and support,” Scott added.
