the Houston police Department
Fire Department and NRG Park
for their response
and support and we’ve been
talking about what exactly
transpired, what what are
people that were at the concert
saying posting talking about we
have a whole picture of it on
social media. And Robert Arnold
is joining us live in
the newsroom tracking the
social media posts. But the
post, the social media post to
continue to come in throughout
the morning are the
same ones.
>> Similar in nature that with
the ones we’ve been seeing
since very early this morning
in since this event started.
And that’s just one of Hunter.
In complete
as these post described you
have this massive crowd
that’s there. Everybody is
waiting waiting, waiting,
waiting for this concert to
start for the Maine. Concert
card. The main artist Travis
Scott to come out. And so as we
get closer to time for Travis
got to come out everybody
started going closer and closer
and closer to that main stage
to have a lot of people on
social media describing that
they couldn’t get to the front.
So they were kind of off to
the side. You had metal
barriers there. One young lady
described that metal barrier.
Was it about at her chest.
So you have all of these people
encroaching on the stage kind
of inching closer and closer
and packing in tighter and
tighter and tighter and had a
lot of this pent-up energy
waiting for this concert to
start in. So a lot of people
describe that once they got
into that crowd, they turned
around. They were leaving as
one. Like I said, one young
lady described it is where your
feet are planted, where where they stay. You were not moving.
they stay. You were not moving.
A colleague of mine. His son
was there said his son was at
the front. And as they were
closer to the front. They
turned around. There was no way
to get out at that point. And so then what happens and
And so then what happens and
you could see it on social
media. You had everybody with
their phones out when Travis
Scott came out. I mean, it was
an incredible entrance. The pyrotechnics went off. You had
pyrotechnics went off. You had
the display, the crowd just a
massive release of energy and
so everybody starts surging
forward at that point. And
that’s when you start hearing
reports from some people that
some people started getting trampled. Some people started
trampled. Some people started
getting crushed and they were
screaming for help. But it was
just mass chaos at the point of
the video that we’re showing
now. That was from earlier in
the day. We had dozens of people that toppled a security
people that toppled a security
fence because I wanted to
bypass checkpoints. He had some
aggression earlier in the day.
There were several people
detained from this particular
incident. But you couldn’t get
everybody. I was also speaking with somebody else that when
with somebody else that when
you have a massive crowd like
that is very
difficult to to plan for every
single tiny contingency in.
Then when you have a crowd that tightly packed. It is very
tightly packed. It is very
difficult to get either police
officers or paramedics
in there very quickly because
you have this confusion, the
people in the back. Don’t know
the people in the front are
getting crushed people are
screaming. People can see here.
There’s questions about how
quickly these artists were
notified. We’re seeing reports on social media that you that
on social media that you that
there were certain pauses in
that initial performance, but
it took a while for the
performance itself to and so
how quickly with the artists
notified that hey, this is
happening now because we do know a lot of times if artists
know a lot of times if artists
are informed quickly, they can
try to calm the crowd down
in prevent further injury in
this area. There was one famed incident involving Donald
incident involving Donald
singer Selena where she was at
a concert. She noticed people
up front. We’re starting to
get crushed against the front
of the stage and they weren’t
able to get out. And so she
work to calm the crowd down
that prevented further injuries. So they’re going to
injuries. So they’re going to
work to find out how quickly
Travis Scott and the other
artists were all notified about
exactly what was going on
there. Some of the other
artists were taking video in
the crowd. You could see
paramedics performing CPR.
People were screaming for help.
One young lady posted that she
passed out and she believes one
of her friends was able to
somehow get
her body back to the back.
And when she woke up, she was
she had no idea what happened
just was lying there on the
ground with a water in her lap.
And so there was a lot of this.
You have what’s called
traumatic asphyxiation when
people start panicking, you
start getting compressed in
the area and that would explain
some of trampling injuries that
we’re seeing. We’re also
checking into reports that the
fire chief that there may have
been drugs involved with some
of these cardiac arrest cases
all and none of that at this
point has been settled. So
that’s going to be a lot to
this investigation. You know,
was it a mix of drugs was
trampling how quickly we’re
artists notified, how quickly
did this escalate out of
control because we’ve had
similar size crowds in the past
this astroworld festival and we
have not had nearly as serious
an incident matter of fact.
We’re going through our records
and we found out that there are
some people injured in 2019,
but mine. Are they right.
Knee injuries? Nothing to this
extent where you have at least
8 people dead. Several more.
The injured and they’re still
trying to go through. We’ve seen some posts from some
seen some posts from some
parents. I haven’t heard from
my child. So there are still
people out there looking for
loved ones and still a lot of
information that is missing as
to exactly how all of this
transpired we’re going through
that. We’re trying to talk more
with, but the fire chief and
the police chief as well as
talking to those who were
there. And as we keep getting
this new information. We will
keep updating you both on air
and on click 2 Houston dot com.
Back to you guys. Robert,
before we let you go, I just
want to go back to the
description that you had made
earlier when you talked about in this is just
in this is just
heart-wrenching. When you talk
about the crowd being so
intense that people were
drowning in people once it once
it got so packed and people
were kind of just getting
shuffled in and out. That’s
that description really stuck
with me shortstop with our
Yeah. That was that was that
was a description from one
young on instagram. She posted that once it started. People
that once it started. People
started drowning.
>> She put
it dashed in other people.
And I remember even saying let
that sink in for a minute.
I mean, there’s just nothing you can do. I mean.
you can do. I mean.
The problem with this is it’s a
cascading effects. Everybody
starts crushing Ford. Well,
that’s not something you can
just stop instantly when people
start getting hurt. The people
behind them don’t know they’re
being heard. They can’t see. They can’t hear so people start
They can’t hear so people start
screaming. And then it just
becomes mass chaos. And then I
get a description from a
colleague of mine who had a son
there who said that police were then trying to assure people
then trying to assure people
out as quickly as possible.
In. That was not a fast
process. Either because there
was really nowhere to go
quickly. And in fact, he said his son and his friends were
his son and his friends were
closer to the front of the
stage in didn’t even realize
the rainy problem in till they
were leaving and they saw
paramedics performing CPR on
people. So that just goes to
show you when you have this massive crowd. Not everybody
massive crowd. Not everybody
knows what’s going on. And it
just leads to more chaos.
And then when you have chaos,
people start acting, you know,
in irrational manners. And so
it takes a long time to calm that type of the situation down
that type of the situation down
once the once it started
rolling.
>> I know. Where did you
typically do not ever have your
investigative half off. Want to ask you now,
half off. Want to ask you now,
right now as you start to take
a look at this. You’ve been
watching what’s been going on
when you start as an
investigative unit, as an
investigator. What do you
start? You think you start to try to figure out what happened
try to figure out what happened
with this. Well, I mean, one of
the things we start as we try
to establish a timeline, OK, so
when were the
first calls.
>> For help coming in. You
know, when did you start
hearing people are being trampled. People are passing
trampled. People are passing
out CPR in progress. You start
with that timeline. Then you
start looking at the number of
people that were on site. Now, we’ve already heard that
Now, we’ve already heard that
you had. I think what was it
close to 500 a mix of hpd
and security, their online.
But then you ask about, OK,
what about medical help?
I’m trying to figure out that
how many paramedics run. See how many Amy on says.
See how many Amy on says.
Were on scene to handle a crowd
of this size. We’re still
waiting to hear those Is well,
now, one sure, there were also
waiting to hear from paramedics
and what type of symptoms recent. We’ve heard some of
recent. We’ve heard some of
these people, you know, having
to perform CPR. We had cardiac
arrest. But what what preceded
that were they seeing other symptoms of potentially drug
symptoms of potentially drug
overdoses. Were there trauma
injuries were trying to piece
all of that together. And then
of course we start finding out,
OK. When did more get to the
arts when were they told that,
hey, we’ve got a real problem here. We need to stop our
here. We need to stop our
performance now because the
longer we keep performing.
The energy is going to keep up
in the crowd and we’re not
going to get people to disperse
quickly. So we’re going to look
at that. And then of course, will will further back. We want
will will further back. We want
to know about the planning.
You know what e-mails, what
kind of plans were put in place
what was discussed, what kind of contingencies were discussed
of contingencies were discussed
were going to one of the things
that I that I’m going to
ask about is well, is if they
if they had this type of event
like a barrier pit. That’s in
front of the crowd, which is
which kind of is supposed to
be able to help lift people out
who are being crushed in front
and also get word to
the artist faster. So how how
did that work, that barrier
Pitt was that there. How is
that working how is the in that
area and we’ll look at
contracts. What was called for
estimating crowd size. All of
that to try and paint a
complete picture.
>> On lot of investigative work
to be done. Thank you, Robert,