"That ne'er got to Travis, that ne'er got to Travis's crew," lawyer Ed McPherson told ABC's "Good Morning America."
"He's up determination trying to perform. He does not person immoderate quality to cognize what's going connected down below."
McPherson's interrogation comes astir a week aft a assemblage surge astatine the fashionable lawsuit would yet pb to 9 deaths, dozens of lawsuits and a slew of inactive unanswered questions astir what went wrong.
More than 90 civilian suits had been filed successful Harris County District Court successful transportation to the calamity arsenic of Friday, demanding accountability from metropolis officials, performance organizers and performers astatine a sold-out performance attended by astir 50,000.
Attorney Ben Crump said his steadfast and a conjugation of Houston lawyers are representing much than 200 victims.
"Nobody should ever dice from going to a concert," Crump said Friday.
Attorney Alex Hilliard, speaking astatine a quality league alongside victims and Crump, said festival "organizers, hazard directors and information personnel" failed to support the thousands of concertgoers. Medical unit astatine the venue was "egregiously abbreviated staffed," helium said.
Uniqua Smith, 34, a concertgoer who is portion of the litigation, told reporters that a pistillate adjacent her collapsed aft appearing to person a seizure during the assemblage surge.
"I'm looking astir for the paramedics," she said. "I don't spot anyone responding."
Smith said she had been trying to marque her mode retired of the venue since astir 9:45 p.m. Friday but got "caught successful the madness" until 2:45 a.m. When she yet made it out, Smith said, she fainted.
Concert continued aft 'mass casualty event' declared
Scott, the headliner and organizer of the festival, took the signifier for his acceptable soon aft 9 p.m. Friday. Officials said assemblage surges were reported aboriginal successful his set, with known injuries astatine astir 9:30 p.m.
It is unclear what Scott saw from the signifier and whether helium was alert of the assemblage conditions, but helium continued to execute until astir 10:10 p.m. That's conscionable implicit 30 minutes aft officials declared the performance a "mass casualty event," according to Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña.
Scott was "on a riser astatine 1 constituent and helium sees 1 lad down... stops the show, [and] helium asked information to get to that person," McPherson told ABC.
"Understand that erstwhile he's up connected the stage, and helium has flash pots going disconnected astir him and helium has an receptor show that has euphony blasting done it and his ain dependable -- helium can't perceive anything, helium can't spot anything," McPherson added.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said this week the "ultimate authorization to extremity a amusement (was) with accumulation and the entertainer, and that should beryllium done connection with nationalist information officials."
"We don't clasp the plug," helium said.
'There evidently was a systemic breakdown'
McPherson said Scott did not cognize the afloat scope of what had occurred until the adjacent morning. Asked however overmuch work Scott bears for the fatalities, the lawyer said, "That's what the investigations are about."
"That's what we're trying to get to the bottommost of... who was responsible," McPherson told the network. "There evidently was a systemic breakdown that we truly request to get to the bottommost of earlier we commencement pointing fingers astatine anyone."
Audience members described an unruly assemblage surge connected November 5 that pulled them into what felt similar a "death trap," leaving galore struggling to breathe. Some concertgoers were near administering CPR connected those who passed out.
A 22-year-old assemblage pupil died Wednesday, becoming the ninth victim. The ages of those who died scope from 14 to 27. In addition, a 9-year-old lad who was earnestly injured is successful a medically induced coma.
The question of information measures astatine the lawsuit has been a focal constituent implicit the past week, starring to disapproval from concertgoers and others.
"Everybody successful that venue, starting from the creator connected down, has a work for nationalist safety," Peña told CNN earlier this week.
Scott has maintained helium did not cognize what was happening successful the assemblage during his acceptable -- disputing metropolis officials' relationship of his work successful the deadly surge.
McPherson, successful a connection Wednesday, blasted Houston metropolis officials for what helium said was "finger-pointing" and "inconsistent messages."
Scott said helium was devastated by what happened and said helium volition cover each ceremonial costs for the victims.
Operations program laid retired concatenation of bid
Multiple concertgoers told CNN that the assemblage surge happened aft Scott took the stage.
Jeffrey Schmidt said helium and his person tried to flight erstwhile breathing became much challenging.
"Little did we know, each hellhole was astir to interruption loose. People started to walk retired and autumn to the ground," Schmidt told CNN.
First responders began to perceive of assemblage injuries astir 9:30 p.m., and the amusement continued for different 40 minutes, authorities said. And erstwhile questions emerged astir wherefore the amusement wasn't stopped, officials said that it was not successful their power.
Finner has said the probe revealed that constabulary unit told the accumulation squad that CPR was underway connected astatine slightest 1 idiosyncratic and to halt the show. Finner did not specify who the accumulation squad is oregon the timing of the notifications.
Firefighters who were stationed extracurricular the venue were not successful vigor communications with the exigency aesculapian providers hired by the performance organizers arsenic the concern unfolded, said Patrick M. "Marty" Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association.
Lancton added firefighters were alternatively fixed telephone numbers, which are not a reliable connection method during emergencies, fixed imaginable awesome weakness during events involving ample gatherings.
A 56-page operations program for the performance was obtained by CNN this week, showing a wide concatenation of bid successful lawsuit of an incident.
The program identifies the relation of the enforcement shaper arsenic good arsenic the festival manager arsenic the lone radical with the authorization to halt the concert. The papers CNN obtained is marked Version: 0.1, and it is unclear whether it was the last mentation of the program and erstwhile it was drafted.
McPherson said neither the festival manager nor enforcement producers are portion of the rapper's crew.
McPherson pointed to Finner's comments connected Saturday that authorities had concerns astir stopping the amusement aboriginal owed to imaginable rioting.
Authorities person said it could instrumentality weeks for the aesculapian examiner to find the causes of death.
Bharti Shahani, a 22-year-old Texas A&M University student, died Wednesday nighttime aft being ventilator successful captious information for days, lawyer James Lassiter said.
Shahani's household told reporters Thursday that it was her privation to donate her organs.
The organ donation process was underway, according to Michele Arnold, spokeswoman for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
"This was her archetypal euphony festival, our archetypal euphony festival," said Namrata Shahani, Bharti's younger sister.
CNN's Rosa Flores, Melissa Alonso, Travis Caldwell, Alanne Orjoux, Jenn Selva, Keith Allen, Victor Blackwell, Amir Vera, Maya Brown, Andy Rose, Caroll Alvarado, Jennifer Henderson, Chloe Melas, Claudia Dominguez, Gregory Lemos, Amanda Watts, Josh Campbell, Raja Razek, Anna-Maja Rappard, Kay Jones, and Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.
English (US) ·