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.”
NEWS
Charli xcx has added the Music, Fashion, Film B sides “I Keep On Thinking Bout You Every Single Day and Night,” “Playboy Bunny” and “If You Take the Music Then What Has She Got?” to iTunes through a new digital deluxe release titled Music, Fashion, Film (B-Sides Edition).
The three tracks had already been introduced to listeners through Charli’s @b.sides alternative Instagram account. They also appeared as physical B sides on limited edition 7 inch singles for “Rock Music,” “SS26” and “Camera,” as well as in an extensive Music, Fashion, Film box set. However, fans were unable to officially buy them as digital downloads until Sunday, July 26.
Charli previously told her audience that the songs were “never gonna go on streaming … I don’t think,” although she admitted at the time that her decision might eventually change.
“you can call me a hypocrite, i don’t mind,” Charli wrote alongside a winking emoji while announcing Music, Fashion, Film (B-Sides Edition) on Sunday.
Priced at $4.99 on iTunes, the digital collection features all 11 songs from the original Music, Fashion, Film album, along with the three additional B sides and their accompanying music videos.
Explaining her choice further on Instagram, Charli wrote: “i made b sides for each of the songs released ahead of Music, Fashion, Film because it felt natural to pair each songs with a fitting counterpart – something that’s adjacent to the album but not entirely part of it. traditionally, b sides often become fan favorites… and i guess in the case of some of the b sides for this album, that has proven to be true. i felt adamant i wouldn’t put them on streaming because it sort of felt counter intuitive to the whole ethos of those songs, but i know you all really wanted them so i’ve begrudgingly put them on itunes lol.”
Music, Fashion, Film was released on Friday, accompanied by the online premiere of the theatrical short film Charli developed to complement the project.
She will begin a short North American tour supporting Music, Fashion, Film in Philadelphia on Sept. 11. The run will then visit Brooklyn, Toronto, Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Glendale and Las Vegas.
