Travis Scott’s Astroworld: What we know about the victims
Eight people were killed in the tragedy at Astroworld Festival. Here’s what we know about the victims
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Eight people have so far died following the deadly crush at Astroworld Festival on Friday night while another five festival-goers are still fighting for their lives in ICU.
The victims, who range in age from 14 to 27 years old, were among the 50,000 fans excited to see rapper and event organiser Travis Scott perform at his third annual festival at the NRG stadium.
But the excitement soon turned to terror when Mr Scott took to the stage.
The crowd surged causing people to be crushed together, others to be trampled while many were unable to breathe.
Bodies of unconscious people piled up as fans chanted “stop the show” while Mr Scott continued to play on.
Officials confirmed early on Saturday that eight people had been killed.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo released the identities of the victims on Monday, publicly confirming the eighth victim as Madison Dubiski – a former cheerleader who had gone to the concert with her brother.
A 14-year-old promising baseball player, a 27-year-old who died saving the life of his fiancee and a 16-year-old aspiring dancer were also among those killed.
The last unidentified victim was named on Sunday as a 21-year-old who had travelled from Washington state for his first concert – after authorities had asked for the public’s help in identifying him.
At least 25 people were hospitalised, five of them aged under 18, and around 300 more received medical attention for various injuries.
The families of a nine-year-old boy and a 22-year-old Texas student have revealed they are still in intensive care four days on from the tragedy.
Mr Scott announced on Monday that he will pay for the funerals for the eight victims.
Here’s what we know so far about the victims.
Madison Dubiski
Madison Dubiski, a 23-year-old former Ole Miss student and ex-cheerleader, was named by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday as a fatality of the Astroworld tragedy.
Ms Dubiski was a huge fan of Astroworld and Mr Scott and had gone to the festival with her younger brother Ty, according to the Houston Chronicle.
But the siblings lost each as the chaos unfolded.
Despite the efforts of her brother to pull her to safety, the 23-year-old was “sucked into the crowd”.
It is not clear whether Ty was also injured in the crush.
Ms Dubiski’s friends told the Houston Chronicle she was best friends with her mother Michelle and was very close to her brother.
Her mother updated her Facebook profile picture and cover photo to pay tribute to her daughter.
Riley Dimeo, who described Ms Dubiski as her “best friend”, also paid tribute to the 23-year-old in a Facebook post.
“Words will never be able to describe the pain of losing my best friend, secret keeper, sissy, and soulmate, Madison Alexis Dubiski,” she wrote.
“I have never known such pure love and friendship until Madison came into my life and I’m not really sure how life will continue without her.
“If you were fortunate enough to know mads you knew how beautiful, sweet, kind, generous, and loving she really was.”
Originally from Cypress, Texas, Ms Dubiski went to Cy-Fair High School, where she was a Varsity cheerleader and member of National Charity League.
She then attended The University of Mississippi – Ole Miss.
According to her Facebook, she worked at Rhino Marketing Worldwide, a Texas-based marketing agency, and lived in Texas.
John Hilgert
The youngest victim killed in the Astroworld Festival tragedy was 14-year-old John Hilgert, a high school student from Houston and promising baseball and football player.
John had told friends before the festival that he wanted to get to Mr Scott’s set early to get a good spot in the crowd, according to The Houston Chronicle.
The 14-year-old’s death has shocked staff and students at Memorial High School in Houston where he was a freshman.
Principal Lisa Weir paid tribute to John in a letter sent to parents on Saturday and green ribbons – John’s favourite colour – were tied at the school.
“We are deeply saddened to inform you that a male ninth grade student died in an incident at the Astroworld Festival,” the statement read.
“Our hearts go out to the student’s family and to his friends and our staff at Memorial. This is a terrible loss, and the entire MHS family is grieving today.”
Baseball coach Justin Higgs posted a moving tribute to the teenager on social media describing him as “one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met”.
“RIP John Hilgert. He got the Call up to the Major Leagues by the Almighty!” he wrote.
“John made an impact on anyone who met him and they always remembered him. I have memories of John I’ll never forget. You had to love the kid. No option not too cause he was who he was. He loved the game baseball.”
He added: “[He was] one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met. John was an Angel the whole time I knew him ... impacting others for good and he himself was a legend.
“The legend of John. Will meet again John. Till then watch over us my friend. Catcher, pitcher, shortstop, great kid. Lived his life to the fullest.”
Danish Baig
Danish Baig has been named as the oldest person killed in the tragedy, after the 27-year-old died saving the “love of his life”.
Mr Baig, who was identified by Harris County officials as Mirza Baig, had gone to the festival with his fiancee Olivia Swingle.
Mr Baig’s brother Basil said Ms Swingle was being trampled and stomped in amid the rush of the crowd.
Mr Baig, from Euless, Texas, fell and was trampled by the mass of people as he tried to save Ms Swingle’s life, Basil told NBC DFW.
“He died trying to save his love of his life,” he said.
“My brother was trying to save her and he did. He saved her and it cost him his life.”
Thanks to her fiance, Ms Swingle survived the crush but suffered bruises all over her body.
Mr Baig, from Euless, Texas, was laid to rest in Colleyville two days after the tragedy.
Basil paid tribute to his brother as “the most amazing person ever” who took care of his family and “always put others before him”.
Rudy Peña
A former wide receiver who had dreams of being a border patrol agent was also among those killed at the Astroworld Festival tragedy.
Rodolfo Angel Peña, known as Rudy, was a 23-year-old criminal justice student at Laredo College in Texas who had gone to the concert with two groups of friends.
His family told LMTOnline that they learned he was injured right away as news broke of Friday night’s incident but only found out he had died hours later.
“We found out about my brother around 12:30 a.m. that he was taken to a hospital Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Texas unconscious,” said his sister Jennifer Peña.
“We made the call he was there that’s all they told us nothing else ... They wouldn’t give them info either until my mom got there to a hotel medical center by Kirby Drive in Houston and it was there where they gave us the sad news that my brother had passed away.”
The 23-year-old had been a wide receiver on his varsity football team and hoped to one day work for US Customs and Border Protection, his family said.
As the youngest of five siblings who was “always smiling”, Mr Pena was the “favourite” in the family, Jennifer Peña told Rolling Stone.
“He was the sweetest person. He was responsible. He was there for everybody,” she said. “He loved to be close to his friends and family. He helped a lot. He was always smiling. He would come to me for advice. I loved that.”
Jacob Jurinek
Jacob Jurinek, a 20-year-old student from Illinois, died alongside his best friend Franco Patiño at the festival on Friday.
Mr Jurinek, who was nicknamed “Big Jake” by his family members, had bought the Astroworld Festival tickets for himself and Mr Patiño six months ago to celebrate his upcoming 21st birthday on 20 November.
The two traveled from Illinois to Houston for the weekend, which soon turned to tragedy.
Mr Jurinek’s father Ron Jurinek said he last spoke to his son on Thursday when he had called to tell him he had arrived safely in Houston for the festival.
“Every conversation we had always ended in ‘I love you’. That was the last thing we said to each other,” Ron Jurinek told The Washington Post.
Mr Jurinek was raised by his father Ron Jurinek after his mother died suddenly when he was just 10.
Ron described his son as his “best friend” and said they enjoyed going to White Sox and Blackhawks games together and spending weekends at the family cottage in Southwestern Michigan.
In 2019, Mr Jurinek had graduated from Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, near Chicago, before he went to study art and media at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
He was remembered by his family for his “larger-than-life personality” and “contagious enthusiasm, his boundless energy and his unwavering positive attitude,” they said in a statement.
Franco Patiño
Mr Jurinek’s best friend 21-year-old Franco Patiño was also identified as one of the victims of the Astroworld tragedy.
His father Julio Patiño said his son had called him at around 2pm on the afternoon of the festival and said the crowds weren’t very big at that point.
Julio Patiño said he told his son to be careful before getting a heartbreaking phone call that night from his wife to tell him that their son was in hospital.
Mr Patiño, also from Naperville, Illinois, was a student at the University of Dayton in Ohio, where he majored in mechanical engineering technology.
The 21-year-old was a member of the Hispanic interest fraternity Alpha Psi Lambda, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service Learning.
He dreamed of helping people with disabilities and was specifically working on the development of a new medical device, Julio Patiño told the Associated Press.
His passion, he said, was partly driven by his mother who was left unable to walk following a car crash in Mexico two years ago.
“He loved his mom. He said everything that he was doing, it was trying to help his mom. The entire goal,” said Julio Patiño.
Axel Acosta
Axel Acosta was the last of the eight victims to be identified by the medical examiner.
The 21-year-old from Washington state had traveled alone to Houston to see Mr Scott at what was his first ever festival.
It was also his last, as he never returned.
The day after the tragedy, authorities released a photo of Mr Acosta and his Nike shoe and asked for the public’s help in identifying him as the last of the eight victims not yet named.
Mr Acosta’s father Edgar Acosta identified his son as the victim after seeing the photos.
He said at a press conference on Monday that he had been contacting authorities ever since news broke about the tragedy but was reassured that his son was not among the dead or injured.
He said he called the hotel his son had booked and was told he had not spent the night there so called the sheriff’s office and the reunification line.
“They told me, ‘Mr Acosta, you son is not on the list. So you don’t have to worry about anything’. He’s not on the list of the dead people or the injured people’,” he said.
They also reassured him that none of the victims was unidentified. He later learned his son had died.
An attorney for Mr Acosta’s family said people “trampled over his body like a piece of trash” and had the air “literally slowly squeezed out of him” in the crush.
Mr Acosta was studying computer science at Western Washington University.
His brother Angelo Acosta wrote on social media that his brother’s death was “draining and unbelievable”, adding “my heart is so heavy right now”.
Brianna Rodriguez
A 16-year-old high school junior and passionate dancer died after going to the festival with a group of friends.
The Houston teenager was found unresponsive in the crowd after becoming lost from her friends during the surge.
She was given CPR at the festival and rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead, her aunt told The Sun.
Ms Rodriguez was a junior at Heights High School in Houston and was one of the “top dancers” in the school, the Heights HS Band said in a tribute.
“Brianna was someone who performed with the band and was someone who could always make anyone smile,” the statement said.
“Although she’s gone and she cannot perform with us anymore, we know she’d want to still enjoy our time in heights.” A vigil was held for her in Houston on Sunday where a teammate in her dance team paid tribute to the “passionate” dancer.
“She was one of our top dancers. Our biggest ‘hype man’ for everyone. She always brings energy to the team, [she’s] just so passionate,” they said.
The victims still fighting for their lives
Bharti Shahani
Bharti Shahani, a 22-year-old computer programming student at Texas A&M University, is fighting for her life on a ventilator after her brain was deprived of oxygen and she suffered multiple heart attacks in the deadly crush.
She remained in the ICU at Houston Methodist Hospital on Monday evening where doctors have told her family her chances of survival are “nothing”, her devastated father told ABC13.
Ms Shahani had gone to the concert on Friday night with her sister Namrata Shahani and her cousin Mohit Bellani but they all became separated from each other in the chaos.
While her sister and cousin both survived, Ms Shahani was rushed to hospital with medics performing CPR on her on the way.
Both Mr Bellani and Namrata Shahani lost their cellphones in the chaos and were unable to reach out to Ms Shahani after they escaped the crush. They later learned that she had been rushed by ambulance to hospital.
Mr Bellani said his cousin had been deprived of oxygen for several minutes on end which caused her brain to swell and she suffered multiple heart attacks.
“I think she lost oxygen for 10 minutes one time and seven minutes at another time,” he said. “So her brain stem was swollen to like 90 per cent almost.”
Ms Shahani was due to graduate in the new year and had dreams of taking over the family business, her father said.
Ezra Blount
One of the other casualties fighting for their lives is Ezra Blount, a nine-year-old boy from Dallas who had gone to see his “favorite artist” Mr Scott with his father Treston Blount.
Treston said in a GoFundMe that Ezra had been on his shoulders while they waited for Drake to appear on stage.
The father then passed out in the crush and the little boy fell into the crowd.
“I began to be crushed until I couldn’t breathe I passed out,” he said.
“And I woke up and my son was gone and due to his severe injuries which are swelling in the back of brain damage and trauma to nearly all organs we are certain that he was trampled and is still in induced coma.”
The little boy has been placed into a medically-induced coma to try to overcome the trauma to his brain, the family said.
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