Houston fire chief: Travis Scott, others should have stopped show

Houston’s fire chief said Tuesday that rapper Travis Scott should have stopped performing, and others should have stepped in to end the show on Friday, when a deadly crowd surge began at the city’s AstroWorld festival.

The chaotic push of people towards the stage during the rapper’s performance eventually left eight people dead and dozens injured.

“We all have a responsibility. Everybody at that event has a responsibility. Starting from the artist on down,” fire chief Samuel Peña told co-host Savannah Guthrie while appearing on NBC’s “Today” show.

Peña said that Scott was the one who had the most control over the situation at the time.

“At one point, there was an ambulance that was trying to make its way through the crowd. And he’s got, the artist has, command of that crowd,” he said.

He added, “The artist, if he notices something that’s going on, he can certainly pause that performance, turn on the lights and say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to continue until this thing is resolved.’ That’s one way to do it, yes.”

Peña said the extent that Scott was aware of the extent of the situation is not yet clear. 

“I’m not prepared to say that he was fully aware of the — of what was going on,” he said.

Scott has since offered to pay the funeral expenses of those who were killed. He is facing multiple lawsuits from attendees who allege the situation was a “preventable tragedy.”

Kylie Jenner, a reality star and Scott’s partner, had defended him in a statement posted to Instagram over the weekend, saying he didn’t realize the extent of the situation.

“I want to make it clear we weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing,” she wrote.

Kylie Jenner released statement following the tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival:

“Travis and I are broken and devastated” pic.twitter.com/4QwbRE2jjq

— XXL Magazine (@XXL) November 7, 2021

Social media users, however, have pointed out that videos Jenner posted from the festival showed the ambulance attempting to get through the crowd.

I want to remind you that you can see the ambulance on Kylie Jenners Instagram story from the Travis Scott concert and despite the news has not been taken down #AstroWorld pic.twitter.com/SIhGPbs71n

— mooncake (@LokisHairFlip) November 6, 2021