Travis Scott attended a party at Dave & Buster's after he performed at his Astroworld festival in Houston on Friday night, unaware that eight people had died and dozens of others had been injured during the concert, sources close to Scott said.
"Travis didn’t know the severity of the situation when he arrived at the party, as far as timing, this remains consistent with the fact that no one including the police had publicly confirmed the gravity of the events that had taken place," the sources said by email. "When someone told Travis at Dave & Buster’s about the tragedy, he immediately left the party.”
The party was hosted by Drake, who had made a surprise appearance during the concert.
Authorities have said the "crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage" at about 9:15 p.m. local time. Around 50,000 people were at the festival at NRG Park, which was hosted by Scott.
"That caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries," Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said hours after the incident. "People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic."
A festivalgoer, Alleighya Odom, 21, said the tightly packed crowd "was like this force on my back, this continuous force."
"It was scary, like, genuinely," Odom said.
"I started looking around, and there’s people on the ground. There’s people looking at me, like, scared, eyes wild, like, 'Please help me,'" she continued. "There’s people behind me crying because they’re being stepped on."
Odom said Scott had stopped the show multiple times to request assistance for fans. Video posted on social media also showed him pausing his performance, and The Houston Chronicle reported that he halted his act a number of times throughout the show after he spotted fans in distress near the stage.
Other festivalgoers, however, called out Scott on social media for failing to end the concert. Peña said on NBC’s “TODAY” show that everyone, "starting from the artist on down," has a responsibility during shows.
Peña said evidence shows that attendees tried to approach some of Scott's private security officers to alert them of the situation.
A video posted on social media appeared to show an attendee asking a camera operator to stop the show, but the event continued.
"At one point, there was an ambulance that was trying to make its way through the crowd. And he’s got, the artist has, command of that crowd," Peña said.
"The artist, if he notices something that’s going on, he can certainly pause that performance, turn on the lights and say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to continue until this thing is resolved.’ That’s one way to do it, yes."
Sources close to Scott said he "was at least 50 yards from that camera operator and did not hear the pleas to end the show.”
Scott's girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, who is pregnant with their second child and was at the concert, defended him.
"I want to make it clear we weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing,” she said in an Instagram post.
Scott’s attorney, Edwin F. McPherson, on Wednesday criticized what he called finger-pointing and accused Houston officials of inconsistent messages.
“Investigations should start proceeding over finger-pointing so that together, we can identify exactly what transpired and how we can prevent anything like this from happening again,” McPherson said.
Eight people, ages 14 to 27 were killed, and 25 others were taken to hospitals. More than 300 people were treated throughout the event at an on-site field hospital, officials said.
In an update on the investigation Wednesday, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner clarified previous reports that a male security guard may have been injected with a substance. Finner said detectives spoke to the guard, who said he was hit in the head, lost consciousness and woke up in a tent later.
The guard did not believe he had been injected with any substance, Finner said.
