Attorney: Texas A&M student injured at Astroworld dies
HOUSTON (AP) — A 22-year-old college senior who was critically injured at the Astroworld festival in Houston has died, the family’s lawyer said Thursday, making her the 9th fatality from the event.
Bharti Shahani died Wednesday, attorney James Lassiter said during a news conference.
Hundreds of others were injured in the melee Friday night as rapper Travis Scott took to the stage. A criminal investigation into the deaths at Astroworld is underway.
Family members told Houston TV station KTRK that Shahani was studying electronics systems engineering at Texas A&M University and had been set to graduate next spring. Her cousin, Mohit Bellani, attended the festival with Shahani and said they were separated once the crowd began to surge forward.
“Once one person fell, people started toppling like dominos. It was like a sinkhole. People were falling on top of each other,” Bellani told KTRK.
Shahani was taken to the hospital where she was placed on a ventilator, family members said.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
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Travis Scott was only minutes into his headlining show at the Astroworld music festival when at least one Houston officer radioed over a police channel that the main stage had been compromised by a massive crowd surge. The resulting crush killed at least eight people.
The police radio traffic from the Friday night concert, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, reveals how quickly law enforcement became aware of the rising danger in the throng of concertgoers shortly after the star rapper began performing at the sold-out music festival, which drew about 50,000 people.
Hundreds of other fans were injured as a mass of bodies pressed toward the stage, and nearly a week later, at least two were still in critical condition. They include a 9-year-old boy whose family says was placed in a medically induced coma.