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A lawsuit filed against rapper Travis Scott makes serious allegations about his conduct leading up to the tragedy at the Astroworld Festival.
Eight people were killed and many others were injured during a crowd surge.
The lawsuit alleges Scott “encouraged” the culture that led to the incident.
In a since-deleted tweet in May, Scott told fans, “NAW AND WE STILL SNEAKING THE WILD ONES IN.”
Fans understood the tweet to suggest Scott was allowing the concert to sneak in “wild” fans despite the fact that the show was quickly sold out of tickets.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of concertgoer Manuel Souza.
Souza says the tweet “recklessly encouraged fans to breach the barriers and otherwise actively encouraged a culture of violence.”
Souza suffered “serious bodily injuries” after he was knocked to the ground and “trampled” by an “uncontrolled crowd.”
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It goes on to say the “injuries were the inevitable and predictable result” of “conscious disregard of the extreme risks of harm to concertgoers that had been escalating since hours earlier.”
The lawsuit comes as some have accused the rapper of engaging in a pattern of conduct that encouraged the kind of chaos that resulted in Friday’s tragedy, including a 2017 incident in which the rapper encouraged fans to jump from a balcony at New York’s Terminal 5 venue.
“Don’t be scared,” Scott says in a video of the event posted to Twitter. “They’re going to catch you.”
WATCH:
There are no fans like @trvisXX fans. pic.twitter.com/tv04tn07p9
— RAVEN B. (@RAVIEB) May 1, 2017
While some fans did jump from the balcony, one fan who was injured that night said he was pushed off the balcony by the crowd. The fan was partially paralyzed by the incident, and an attorney who filed a lawsuit on his behalf said Scott encourages “violence and injury at his concerts.”
“Make no mistake about it, his desire for chaos caused this horrific tragedy,” the attorney told BuzzFeed News of the latest incident.
Scott’s reputation for chaotic shows famously started after a 2015 appearance at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, where he was arrested only minutes into his show and charged with disorderly conduct after encouraging fans to jump barriers and rush the stage. The rapper pleaded guilty in that incident and was sentenced to one year of probation.
