Travis Scott’s attorney suggests ‘finger-pointing’ at hands of Houston Police for Astroworld tragedy

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The attorney for Travis Scott spoke out in defense of the rapper amid criticism for not stopping his Astroworld Festival performance as the crowd became dangerous and left eight people dead. 

Many from the public to elected officials have noted that they believe it was Scott’s responsibility to stop the show and control the crowd in order to give first responders the space and resources they needed to help people after a crowd surge made the situation at the popular Houston concert dangerous. 

Scott, meanwhile, has maintained that he was unaware from his vantage point on the stage how dire the situation had become in the crowd. He claims he wasn't made aware of the deaths until well after the show ended. In a statement provided to Fox News, his attorney, Edwin F. McPherson of McPherson LLP, reiterated those claims and called out the Houston Police Department for shifting the blame onto Scott.

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Travis Scott performs onstage during the third annual Astroworld Festival at NRG Park on November 05, 2021 in Houston, Texas.  (Rick Kern/Getty Images)

"There has been multiple finger-pointing, much of which has been by city officials, who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from original statements," McPherson wrote. "Houston Police Chief Troy Finner was quoted in the New York Times as saying, 'You cannot just close when you got 50,000 and over 50,000 individuals. We have to worry about rioting, riots, when you have a group that’s that young.' Yet, just a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis."

Indeed, Finner told The New York Times that rioting among the already rowdy crowd was a concern he had if the show ended early.  He also stated that he met personally with Scott and his team before the concert to discuss potential dangers that could arise from the 2021 Astroworld audience. Despite touting his personal relationship to Scott amid the rapper’s deep connection to the city of Houston, Finner walked back those comments during a press conference on Wednesday noting that he only met Scott twice. 

The crowd watches as Travis Scott performs at Astroworld Festival at NRG park on Friday, Nov.  5, 2021 in Houston. Several people died and numerous others were injured in what officials described as a surge of the crowd at the music festival while Scott was performing. Officials declared a "mass casualty incident" just after 9 p.m. Friday during the festival where an estimated 50,000 people were in attendance, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told reporters at a news conference.  (Jamaal Ellis/Houston Chronicle via AP)

McPherson seemingly suggests that the Houston Police Department is deflecting blame onto Scott when there were reportedly other systems in place to manage the crowd using police and private security, which all had some degree of control over the show.

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"It was reported that the Operations Plan designated that only the festival director and executive producers have authority to stop the show, neither of which is part of Travis’s crew," the attorney wrote. "This also runs afoul of HPD’s own previous actions when it shut down the power and sound at this very festival when the performance ran over 5 minutes back in 2019."

The statement concludes: "Investigations should start proceeding over finger-pointing so that together, we can identify exactly what transpired and how we can prevent anything like this from happening again." 

Shortly after the incident, Scott broke his silence on social media noting that he was "devastated" to learn that people died at his show. In a subsequent statement, he reiterated claims made by his longtime girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, in which she stated that he couldn’t see the crowd well enough to recognize what was going on from the stage. 

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Scott's attorney released a statement about the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Tx. (Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

"My fans… My fans, like, really mean the world to me and I always just really want to leave them with a positive experience and any time I can make out anything that’s going on, I stop the show and help them get the help they need, you know? I could just never imagine the severity of the situation," Scott said. 

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There is indeed evidence to suggest that there was confusion near the stage about what was happening in the crowd. A source close to Astroworld noted that videos of the concert show police officers were taking videos of the performance well after some first responders had been deployed, seemingly suggesting that even they were unaware of the severity of the situation during the concert.