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November 15, 2021
- Injury Lawyer
- News
- By Cesar Ornelas
Approximately 30 minutes before Travis Scott was set to make his appearance at the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas, Hector Pescador was less than ten feet away from the barricades that separated general admission ticketholders from the upgraded VIP section of the festival.
Despite still having time before Scott took the stage, Pescador, a 28-year-old from Laredo, reported that festival attendees were positioned in a way that did not allow concertgoers to move their arms or limbs. At this point, Pescador knew something was wrong, but it was too late to move or change his location. The festival was going to continue from there, and to his horror, it only got worse.
As the crowd began to prepare for the arrival of the famed rapper, the situation in the crowd only intensified. The scene was becoming more hazardous by the minute as people from the back rushed forward towards the stage. Pescador felt a slight panic come on when he realized that it would not be possible to escape the crowd.
Pescador reported that around ten minutes before Scott was set to appear on stage (as noted by the large countdown clock on the stage’s screen), he began to hear the crowd start to notice that someone near the front row had stopped breathing and died.
Things were beginning to escalate
“I had a feeling in my heart that something bad was going to happen,” Pescador shared with the San Antonio Express News in a press conference with his lawyers at Cesar Ornelas Law. Pescador watched the victim’s lifeless body get crowd-surfed and taken away, which prompted his decision to do whatever it took to remove himself from the worsening situation he was in.
Additional terror set in when Pescador realized that the show was continuing as if nothing had happened. It became apparent that the live event organization had no plans to interfere and that the show was set to continue. And continue it did, with Scott coming on stage like any other rapper would do – roars from the crowd continued to grow and Scott continued to belt out into the audience.
Pescador is among four clients represented by Cesar Ornelas Law Firm in a lawsuit stemming from the crowd surge during Travis Scott’s performance that claimed nine people’s lives and injured many others.
Cesar Ornelas Law files suit
The lawsuit filed by Cesar Ornelas Law contains 13 defendants who were present at the Houston festival, including both Scott himself as well as fellow rapper Drake, Live Nation, and its affiliates, Cactus Jack Records LLC, Scoremore LLC, and its affiliated, ASM Global and its affiliates, and Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.
According to the lawsuit filed by Cesar Ornelas Law, Pescador is seeking $1 million from the defendants.
Alongside Pescador, three other separate lawsuits have been filed, including San Antonio residents Keith Davis, Renee Ramirez, and Derek Morales. Four more lawsuits are expected the be filed in the coming days, with plaintiffs in Houston and El Paso.
According to the San Antonio Express News, “Pescador, who is suing the defendants for alleged gross negligence and grossly negligent conduct, described to reporters [and the Cesar Ornelas Law team] how he started to relay the news about the person who had died to those around him, and was able to slowly make his way through the sea of people. He said people were confused and didn’t believe him that someone had died.”
Despite the scene growing more chaotic by the minute, Pescador told reporters that he did not see an ambulance appear in the crowd until after the first set by Scott ended. It was then that medics finally came to help the victims that had already been inflicted with injury or death during the beginning of the concert.
Pescador is now living with the painful aftermath of internal bruising and the physical and mental toll of the traumatic events that occurred at the festival.
He also reported that he is experiencing trouble sleeping as the concert events continue to play on in his mind. Pescador shared with his lawyers that he often asks himself, “how did I make it out of there” [alive]?
Hearing from the legal team
Lawyer Angela Tabares alleges that Scott’s proven history of inciting riots at his concerts combined with lack of preparation of the organization who hired untrained and inexperienced security staff are reason enough to move forward with the lawsuits. To add to this poorly planned event, the staff of the concert organizers seems to have hired a team of medical services as staff to attend the festival. Tabares said that each of us has been to many festivals, and we attend them with the knowledge that something could go wrong at the event – but that luckily, a majority of festival goers have never had to face the same terror that Pescador and his fellow concert attendees did the night of the festival in Houston. Tabares also noted that other festivals usually have safety protocols to prevent fans from getting injured or killed.
“There is no reason these people, the promoters, the organizers, should have done a festival of this size with such lackadaisical security,” Tabares said. “We have been hearing stories from people thankfully coming forward that they were just hired on the spot, and their payment was getting to go to the Astroworld for free.” Tabares proclaimed that even she could have been hired and given a security position to illustrate just how careless the hiring and management team were at the event.
Tabares and her fellow attorneys remain firm in their belief that what happened at Astroworld was an egregious mistake that could have been prevented.
For now, attendees like Hector Pescador are left to manage their injuries and mental anguish in the days to come. Cesar Ornelas Law is seeking to serve justice to Pescador and the additional concertgoers who have decided to pursue their legal services following the tragic events at the concert.
Sources
San Antonio Law firm files 4 lawsuits against Travis Scott, Drake for Astroworld Tragedy
Cesar Ornelas Law Is Here For You
Victims of these horrendous events do not have to face their aftermath alone. The team at Cesar Ornelas Law has experience in handling cases with this type of sensitivity. We are here for you, and we will fight for you. Cesar Ornelas Law is on your side.
Reach out to us
If you were injured in the Astroworld Tragedy or even a witness to the events that unfolded, reach out to Cesar Ornelas Law today.
You can reach us toll-free at 885-710-4912 fill out a contact form that will generate an immediate email to our team.
Additionally, you or a loved one can email our firm at astrofest@oinjurylaw.com
Originally from Kyle, Texas, Mr. Ornelas is a first-generation college graduate and a first-generation attorney.
Licensed in Texas, Cesar Ornelas’s nationwide practice is entirely contingency fee-based and consists of a wide variety of catastrophic personal injury and death cases. He has represented countless victims of catastrophic accidents across the United States.
