Travis Scott performs at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, in Houston. Concertgoers have described the packed crowd growing dangerous even before headliner Travis Scott appeared on stage, and seeing people collaps
Amy Harris/Invision/APMore than two months after the Astroworld crowd-control disaster claimed the lives of 10 people, the Houston Police Department on Friday asked attendees to upload their photos and video to a new dedicated website designed by the FBI.
“To ensure that we have captured all possible evidence for a complete investigation, we have partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for additional technical assistance,” Houston Police said in a statement, adding that detectives previously reviewed “countless hours” of video, just not through such a sophisticated repository.
“I think this took far too long. They should have hit the gas immediately upon starting the investigation,” Dr. Darrin Porcher, a former NYPD lieutenant and adjunct professor at Pace University’s School of Criminal Justice, says. Porcher adds that the two-month delay suggests “the chain of command kind of fell asleep at the wheel.”
Porcher, who’s serving as an expert to Hilliard Martinez Gonzalez LLP, a plaintiffs’ law firm already representing more than 700 Astroworld attendees, says the FBI has a large field office covering the Houston area with resources that would be well-known to local police.
“For the life of me, I can’t understand why this wasn’t done immediately, because they clearly understood the police department only has so many people. You’re conducting an investigation with 50,000 people at one location. It’s clear, and it’s apparent, that the Houston Police Department didn’t have the ability to get this done, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Porcher said. “They didn’t drive it as quickly as they should have.”
The new FBI website asks concertgoers to upload a maximum of four files and share their name and contact information.
Asked if the two-month delay might mean valuable images and video might already be deleted and gone forever, lawyer Alex Hilliard said he didn’t think so.
“The plaintiff lawyers have been diligently obtaining all of this information, so to the extent that prosecutors need it and are asking for it, it’s already within organized, available portals that exits in a lot of the firms,” Hilliard tells Rolling Stone. “In the next couple of weeks, there will be a lot of information provided to prosecutors to establish that there was absolute criminal activity which occurred in this case.”
The terrifying Astroworld crowd crush killed eight people on Nov. 5, the first night of Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival at NRG Park in Houston. Two more people, including 9-year-old Ezra Blount, later died from their injuries.
The panoply of lawsuits filed over the tragedy name concert promoter Live Nation, Scott and various concert security vendors among the lead defendants.
Live Nation and Scott have denied any wrongdoing. In a video message posted on Instagram, Scott, whose legal name is Jacques Webster, said he “could just never imagine the severity of the situation.” His partner Kylie Jenner, mother of his daughter Stormi, also released a statement saying she and Scott were “broken and devastated.”
Tom Morello has called off two scheduled performances as he focuses on supporting his mother following her recent hospital stay.
In a message shared on Instagram on Thursday, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist revealed that he was flying back to the United States to be with his 102 year old mother, Mary Morello, and help care for her.
"Dear friends, fans and comrades, my dear mom, Mary Morello is back in the hospital and I'm headed home to help look after her," he wrote. "Rocking the UK & Europe with you all this summer has been incredible, and I can't wait to be back with you and continue this movement that we started. With much love, unity and power."
The guitarist had been scheduled to perform at the Tons Of Rock Festival in Oslo, Norway, along with the BBK Music Legends Festival in Bilbao, Spain this weekend.
Earlier this month, Morello also cancelled planned appearances in London and Paris, with ticket holders offered refunds through their original point of purchase. However, he still made it to the Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands.
"I am sorry I had to miss a few shows due to my mom's health," the 62 year old noted. "The incredibly resilient, indefatigable Mary Morello at 102 is now feeling somewhat better and has ordered me back into the fray, charging me with rocking you and fighting fascism six strings at a time."
At this point, Morello has not announced when he expects to return to the stage.
Mary Morello, the musician's mother, built a career as a teacher and activist. She also helped establish the anti censorship organization Parents for Rock and Rap during the late 1980s.
