Who is Kent Schaffer? Travis Scott's lawyer says Astroworld tragedy report amid 'Utopia' release was intentional
HOUSTON, TEXAS: At least one of Travis Scott’s attorneys claimed that the Houston Police Department’s release of the statements on their probe into the deadly Astroworld crowd crush is matched with the singer’s release of the new album. While HPD opines that it is just a mere coincidence, Scotts’ attorney Kent Schaffer refuses to believe it so.
In a lengthy statement to TMZ, Schaffer opined that the Houston Police matched the time of their release of statement regarding the probe into the Astroworld tragedy (it took ten lives in the massive crowd crush in 2021) with Scott’s release of the new album ‘Utopia’ on Friday, July 28. He said in a statement, "The timing of the Houston Police Department report’s release, coinciding with the launch of Travis Scott’s highly anticipated album, is anything but coincidental.”
Who is Kent Schaffer?
Kent Schaffer is a notable lawyer with over 40 years of criminal law practice experience, who is associated with the Schaffer Kennedy Johnson & Mays law firm. He is licensed to practice in Texas and the District of Columbia and has practiced before the United States Supreme Court, several United States Circuit Courts of Appeals, and all federal districts in the State of Texas, per his bio on the firm’s website. He has represented several notable celebrities from different sectors of the entertainment industry previously.
In the statement given to TMZ, Schaffer put his opinion that "Travis Scott and his team were, as anticipated, fully cleared of any wrongdoing associated with the Astroworld tragedy by a grand jury based on the very report released today.” Previously, in June, the grand jury refused to indict the ‘Trance’ singer for the ten deaths in the concert.
In his fiery statement, the attorney further lambasted the HPD for their own “critical failures”. Opining that the police are matching the timing of the statement release with the release of the album to “discredit” Scott and deflect their own inefficiencies to the singer’s team. He said, “It is outrageous that HPD has chosen to resort to tactics that attempt to discredit Travis and his team, casting doubt on how the unfortunate events at Astroworld actually transpired while deflecting blame from their own critical failures.”
The attorney’s statement also highlighted Scott’s commitment to maintaining his audience’s safety, "Travis's commitment to his audience's safety and well-being is well-documented.”
The attorney’s statement also brought out the purported inaccuracy in the HPD’s report as he said that while the ‘Love Galore’ singer stopped the concert the moment he was asked to, the HPD “did not intervene” timely. He said, “As reported countless times, he [Scott] actively stopped the show three separate times. Contrary to the HPD report’s inaccuracies, the concert did end at the exact time communicated to Travis. Meanwhile, Houston police officers present at the event did not intervene during the unfolding situation. They were observed throughout the show standing by idly, buying merch and even filming the concert in its entirety.”
Schaffer continued, "We encourage the Houston PD to make peace with the fact that Travis Scott and his team were found innocent of any wrongdoing and to focus on what really matters – making sure tragedies like Astroworld never occur again under their watch."
Schaffer believes that the statement released by the HPD is timed intentionally to hurt the sales of the ‘Utopia’ album. Further, he claimed that 1266 page long report was also made to attenuate the flak received by law enforcement for not charging Scott with a crime. However, he believes, even after the carefully-timed statement release, the album sales won’t be hurt.
What happened in Astroworld?
10 concert-goers, including a nine-year-old boy, lost their lives in a stampede at the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park in Houston in 2021. Another 300 people, who suffered injuries and other medical conditions were treated in a field hospital. As per Scott’s lawyer, the rapper stopped his performance as soon as he was asked to stop through his earpiece, thus he was not indicted in the deaths of 10 concert-goers.