Astroworld: Long wait for Travis Scott, gunless cops led to stampede, says reality star
A concertgoer who witnessed the fatal stampede at Astroworld Festival talked about how slow security checks made the crowd "anxious and angry" prior to the "mass casualty" incident that left eight people dead and hundreds of others injured.
Reality star Washington Ho from House of Ho and his wife Leslie had VIP tickets for the music festival and witnessed the gates getting stormed as they were trying to get to their spot right next to the stage. Washington claimed that the police lost control of the crowds as the couple felt they were being "herded like cattle." "There was like a single file line. It was just like it felt like a herd of cattle trying to fight through this little, like probably eight-foot-long gate. So imagine trying to get like 10,000 people trying to get through a little gate who all want to see you know, Travis Scott."
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He added: "And of course, they said there was some guest stars and people started thinking it was Drake or Kanye, so it got even crazier. And by the time my wife and I got closer to the gate, we wanted to turn it around because we were like, 'This is too crazy.' We're standing there for probably I felt like forever but I think it was a good like hour."
'The cops don't have guns'
this hurts to watch... It makes me sick to my stomach. Travis Scott is SICK pic.twitter.com/CgaAPHapBT
— Barb Status (@barb_status) November 6, 2021
Washinton further mentioned in an interview with the Sun that the security guard was letting "one person per minute" before cops intervened. "Everyone just started getting really anxious and angry and started pushing, shoving and then by the time me and my wife wanted to turn around the cops like pulled out their tasers. I pulled Leslie back, she almost got tased. We were just getting crushed," he said.
Many members of the crowd also realized that the police who were there to control the venue did not have firearms on them and they yelled 'the cops don't have guns' before the stampede began. "People just rushed and the cops had no control. Me and my wife were like the cops had no power. They had no police power," Washington said. "They had no guns. It's crazy, they had these little like electric taser things and when people found that out they were just like f**k it. So everybody just busted through the gates. And then you know if you didn't like get out of the way you would have gotten trampled. I've been to concerts all my life, but this was definitely the worst poorly managed, disorganized concert. It was a very bad representation of Houston and being from here."
Crowd got restless waiting for Travis Scott
Washington also mentioned that the crowd got restless as they waited for an hour for Travis Scott to make an appearance. Washington added: "We didn't physically see people getting trampled but the people in the lines were talking about you know, this guy fell down and just got stepped on all over. You couldn't really see anything because your face was like, hugged up against the back of somebody else. Unless you were like, six foot five and it was just no one could see anything."
Travis Scott delivered a 75-minute performance during which he stopped several times, urging the security workers to help people in the crowd who were getting injured. He later said on Instagram that he did not fully contemplate the gravity of the tragedy and only got to know about the situation after his performance was done.