Travis Scott was seen for the first time since the deadly stampede at the Astroworld Festival when he was photographed outside his $14 million Houston mansion — as his team said the “distraught” rapper wants victims’ families to contact him directly for help.
The 30-year-old musician appeared anxious on Wednesday as he paced back and forth while wrapped in a Hermès blanket with his back to the camera, photos obtained by the Daily Mail show.
Scott’s high-powered attorneys, led by Neal Manne, also showed up and spent about 45 minutes in his home, where he had been holed up since the tragedy a week ago at NRG Park that claimed nine lives.
On Thursday, Scott’s handlers released a statement saying he is still “actively exploring routes of communication” with families affected by the disaster.
“Over the last week, Travis Scott and his team have been actively exploring routes of connection with each and every family affected by the tragedy through the appropriate liaisons,” said the statement obtained by Fox News Digital.
“He is distraught by the situation and desperately wishes to share his condolences and provide aid to them as soon as possible, but wants to remain respectful of each family’s wishes on how they’d best like to be connected,” it said.
“To those families who would like to reach out directly to his team, please send an email to the below address where we will have a team on hand to assist,” the statement added along with the email address, AW21information@gmail.com.
Meanwhile, Scott’s lawyer on Friday claimed the rapper did not incite the crowd of 50,000 fans to “rage” – and insisted that his client was unaware the show was declared a mass casualty event until after his performance, according to Fox News.
“In fact, we’ve seen footage of police half an hour later just walking about and not looking like it was a mass casualty event. Clearly, the important thing is that never got to Travis, that never got to Travis’s crew,” attorney Edwin McPherson said on “Good Morning America.”
“He’s up there trying to perform. He does not have any ability to know what’s going on down below, certainly on a mass level,” he said. “Travis didn’t really understand the full effect of everything until the next morning, truly.”
The attorney added that Scott stopped the show more than once to help out fans when he noticed “specific” incidents.
There “obviously was a systemic breakdown that we really need to get to the bottom of before we start pointing fingers at anyone,” McPherson said.
Earlier, he shifted blame onto the Houston Police Department.
“There has been multiple finger-pointing, much of which has been by city officials, who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from original statements,” he wrote, according to Fox News.
“Houston Police Chief Troy Finner was quoted in the New York Times as saying, ‘You cannot just close when you got 50,000 and over 50,000 individuals. We have to worry about rioting, riots, when you have a group that’s that young.’ Yet, just a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis,” McPherson added.
The ninth victim of the tragedy died Wednesday night after clinging to life at a hospital for five days.
Bharti Shahani, a 22-year-old senior at Texas A&M University, succumbed to injuries at Houston Methodist Hospital, her family’s attorney confirmed, according to abc13.com.
Shahani, who suffered multiple heart attacks during the crowd surge, was placed on a ventilator with no brain activity shortly after arriving at the hospital, the station reported.
About 300 people were injured at the sold-out festival, which drew 50,000 fans. Two others, including a 9-year-old boy, were in critical condition Thursday.
