Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage
- The father of the boy who was left in a coma from the Astroworld tragedy has filed suit against Travis Scott and organizers.
- Ezra Blount was "catastrophically injured" when a crowd surged during Scott's Friday set in Houston, lawyers said.
- The child remains hospitalized in a medically-induced coma on life-support.
The father of the 9-year-old boy who was left in a coma after he fell off his dad's shoulders and was trampled at Travis Scott's doomed Astroworld music festival has filed a lawsuit against the rapper and concert organizers.
Ezra Blount was "catastrophically injured" when a packed crowd surged toward the stage during Scott's Friday night set at NRG Park in Houston, lawyers for Blout's dad said in a statement on Tuesday. The boy remains hospitalized in a medically-induced coma on life-support "in an attempt to combat his brain, liver, and kidney trauma," the lawyers said.
Eight people were killed in the incident and hundreds more were injured.
The lawsuit – filed Tuesday by prominent civil-rights lawyer Ben Crump and attorneys Alex and Bob Hilliard on behalf of Blount's dad, Treston – "alleges negligence in a great number of aspects, including crowd control, failure to provide proper medical attention, hiring, training, supervision, and retention," the attorneys said.
Scott, Live Nation Entertainment, and Texas festival production company Scoremore are among the defendants named in the lawsuit.
The suit also alleges that the defendants failed to stop Scott's performance until more than 40 minutes after authorities declared a "mass casualty" event at the concert.
"This young child and his family will face life-altering trauma from this day forward, a reality that nobody expects when they buy concert tickets," Crump said in the statement.
"Concerts and music festivals such as this are meant to be a safe place for people of all ages to enjoy music in a controlled environment," Crump added. "None of that was true about the Astroworld Festival."
Ezra Blount is "currently fighting for his life, and his parents will never know the same child they entered Astroworld with," Crump said.
Alex Hilliard added: "We plan to hold everyone who had a hand in this festival accountable for the horrifying and traumatic injuries that this helpless child sustained."
Scott, along with concert organizers, are already facing a growing number of lawsuits by victims of the tragedy and their family members.
Authorities are still investigating the incident.