Astroworld victim Bharti Shahani dies, bringing death toll to 9

(CNN) – A 22-year-old woman who attended the Astroworld festival in Houston is the ninth person to die in the tragedy, a lawyer handling her case said Thursday.

Bharti Shahani died Wednesday night, attorney James Lassiter said.

Shahani, a student at Texas A&M University, attended the concert with his cousin and younger sister, according to cousin Mohit Bellani.

Shahani had been on a ventilator in critical condition days after she suffered injuries at the concert, which was headlined by Travis Scott.

Dozens of other people were injured in a wave of people at the music festival on Friday night.

A 9-year-old boy was seriously injured, according to his family, and is in an induced coma.

Survivors of the avalanche describe scenes in which many attendees were pressed against each other and were sometimes unable to stand.

Bryan Espinoza, who attended the concert with his brother Jonathan, said Wednesday that he has had trouble sleeping since the tragic events.

“I saw people screaming in front of me, trying to fight for their lives, basically. Everyone’s life was in danger and I only saw people passed out, bodies on the ground, a lot of things that you don’t see on a daily basis.” Bryan Espinoza said.

“At one point I thought I was not going to survive.”

Jonathan Espinoza told CNN’s John Berman on Thursday that as he and his brother walked to have their tickets scanned, “fans immediately knocked down a fence.”

“You have the cops trying to stop them, but I mean, there are about 50 people who just break the fence (and) immediately start running,” he said.

“When you start off badly, I don’t understand how you expect to end up successfully,” said Jonathan Espinoza. The event “turned into chaos” from the moment he and his brother arrived, he said.

Association states that firefighters were denied access to the compound on two occasions

The president of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association said Thursday that the district fire chief whose station was the closest to NRG Park passed by the Astroworld venue on the morning of the concert, but access was denied twice.

According to Patrick “Marty” Lancton, the station district fire marshal at 21 went through the enclosure to know the terrain before friday night concert, something that, according to said, is “normal”.

“Like any big event, he walked around and said ‘hey, let’s go over it,'” Lancton said. “In the city of Houston, a fire district chief is usually in charge of three or four stations. When a response is required in his area, he is the first to respond. He would be the one to take over if something happened and it would determine what resources are needed. “

According to Lancton, the district fire marshal was the first to whom security denied him access. He asked to speak to the head of security, who also denied access to the district chief. Lancton said the district fire marshal received a map of the scene.

CNN contacted Contemporary Services Corporation, which handled security for the event, several times and has received no response.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña backed claims that the district chief was not allowed in.
But Peña went a step further, saying he would like his teams to be part of the planning before the day of the event.

“I do need my people to be in the planning, in the contingency plans,” said Peña. “It is important that we have a comprehensive plan that everyone understands.”

Lancton said the district fire chief was among some of the first Houston Fire Department personnel on the scene after four firefighters stationed inside the Orange Parking Lot grew increasingly concerned about the situation unfolding inside the enclosure.

The lack of professional emergency personnel at Astroworld was “absolutely a problem,” Lancton said.

“What it means is that whoever organized the event hired an outside medical company … to take care of any emergencies that occurred inside,” Lancton said on CNN’s “New Day.”

The Houston Fire Department “had no command and control presence inside the premises,” but was close “in a supportive role,” he added.

Lancton said firefighters at the scene asked contracted emergency personnel if they had radios and were given a list of mobile phone numbers. He said that the fact that the emergency logistics strategy was based on cell phones, and not radios, was problematic because “seconds matter, communication matters.”

“I don’t know if cell phones are very reliable when there are fifty or sixty thousand people, especially when there are people who are dying,” he said.

Lancton said firefighters were primarily monitoring radio traffic from the Houston Police Department and noted increasing tension from authorities on the ground. After hearing no radio response to declared medical emergencies, Department personnel on standby chose to initiate a response.

“When they started hearing the traffic on the radio, they decided to initiate a response from the Houston Fire Department themselves and escalated it to a mass casualty incident,” he said.

Scott’s attorney, Edwin F. McPherson, issued a statement Wednesday night criticizing Houston city officials for “pointing,” “inconsistent messages,” and backtracking, as reported. previously CNN.

At least 58 lawsuits filed over the Astroworld tragedy

As investigators and attendees try to find out more about what caused the deadly crowding, a large number of lawsuits are being filed in civil courts on behalf of spectators.

At least 58 civil lawsuits have been filed in Harris County District Court in connection with the disaster as of Wednesday, questioning city officials, concert organizers and performers how it was ultimately allowed to happen. the concert will continue as people die in the tumult.

Police Chief Troy Finner said at a press conference Wednesday that the “final authority to end a show (was) with the production and the artist, and that should be through communication with public safety officials.”

“We don’t have the plug,” he said.

Authorities said first responders they started receiving news of injured in the public around 9:30 pm and the show continued for another 40 minutes.

Finner claims that his investigation revealed that police personnel told the production team in charge of the representation that cardiopulmonary resuscitation was being performed on at least one person and that the show stopped. Finner did not specify who the production team is or the timing of the notifications.

Questions have also been raised about the performance of Live Nation, the show’s promoter and organizer, as well as Scott, who has maintained that he did not know what was going on in the crowd during his set.

“If the lights had been turned on, (if) the promoter or the artist had asked for it, it would have cooled off the audience, and who knows? Who knows what the result would have been? But everyone in that place, starting with the artist has the responsibility of public safety, “Peña told CNN on Monday.

However, Scott’s representatives are challenging city officials’ descriptions of his responsibility in the surge.

McPherson issued a statement Wednesday criticizing Houston city officials for “pointing out,” “incoherent messages” and refuted statements.

In a 56-page plan of operations obtained by CNN this week, a clear chain of command is established in the event of an incident, identifying the role of the executive producer as well as the festival director as the only people with the authority to stop the concert. The PDF obtained by CNN it is marked as Version: 0.1, and it is unclear if this is the final version of the plan or when it was written.

“It was reported that the Operations Plan designated that only the festival director and executive producers have authority to stop the show, neither of whom are part of Travis’ team,” McPherson said in the statement.

McPherson also pointed to Finner’s comments on Saturday that authorities were concerned about the possibility of the show being halted prematurely due to possible disturbances from concert goers.

Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who was introduced to Scott by a mutual friend, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Scott is “absolutely devastated” by what happened at the festival.

“His heart is bleeding for his fans,” he said.

From Houston, Rawlings-Blake said she spent more than four hours with Scott on Wednesday and is working with him to make sure they are speaking with city administration and promoters.

“We are doing everything in our power to make sure that no fan loses their lives at another concert,” he said.

“He’s angry. He’s angry about what happened,” she said, adding: “I think pointing out guilty is unproductive. Deep down, he wants to reach out to families. He also wants to reach out to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. “.

The investigation “will take weeks, possibly months”

Finner said at Wednesday’s press conference that it was too early to say for sure that charges would be brought for the disaster, but said investigators “were not going to leave any stone unturned.”

The crowd crushing investigation “will take weeks, possibly months,” he said.

The chief clarified earlier reports and said there was no evidence that a festival security guard had received a drug injection, but rather that he was hit on the head and left unconscious.

And even though Finner said Wednesday that an independent investigation is not warranted, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo could order a potential third party to do so.

“What happened at Astroworld this weekend was a horrible tragedy, and the families of the victims deserve answers. There may well be criminal liability, and that is why we continue to fully support the criminal investigation of the Houston Police Department,” he said Rafael Lemaitre, communications director of Hidalgo.

“At the same time, Harris County is continuing its process of identifying an independent third party to examine any operational or administrative measures, beyond criminal, that may have been taken to prevent this from occurring.”

– Melissa Alonso, Amand Watts, Josh Campbell, Rosa Flores, Ray Sanchez, Dave Alsup, Raja Razek, Anna-Maja Rappard, Steve Almasy, Allison Flexner, Claudia Dominguez and Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.