Family of Youngest Astroworld Victim Settles Last Remaining Wrongful Death Lawsuit
The family of Ezra Blount, the nine-year-old killed in the crowd crush at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival, has settled the last outstanding wrongful death lawsuit tied to the 2021 tragedy.
As the Houston Chronicle reports, Scott West, a lawyer for the Blount family, said the settlement was reached earlier this week (terms were not disclosed). The case was set to head to trial in September.
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“The family is happy to resolve its claim against all defendants following the death of their son, Ezra,” West said. “They look forward to continuing the process of healing and never forgetting.
Reps for Live Nation and Scott — who were among the defendants — did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.
Blount was the youngest person who died during the Astroworld tragedy. His father, Treston, had taken him to see the show, and Ezra had been sitting on his shoulders when the crowd began to surge as Scott began his set. Treston was caught in the crush, and Ezra fell off his shoulders, getting lost in the chaos. His family later found him at a nearby hospital, listed as a John Doe. After several days in the hospital, during which he was put into a medically induced coma, Ezra died from his injuries.
“We have a lot of anger right now because someone is responsible for the condition of our grandson,” Blount’s grandfather, Bernon, told Rolling Stone in 2021 while Ezra was still in the hospital. “For him to have the injuries he has, I can’t help picturing in my mind what he had to go through to get those injuries. Someone should be held responsible. He went there with his father to have a good time, not to be trampled halfway to… I don’t want to even say the word.”
The settlement of the Blount family’s lawsuit comes several weeks after a Live Nation lawyer, Neal Manne, said in court that nine of the 10 wrongful death suits had been settled (before that, it was known that at least four cases had been settled). Manne’s confirmation came the same week that the first of those lawsuits — brought by the family of Madison Dubiski — was set to head to trial.
There are still hundreds of outstanding injury lawsuits related to the Astroworld tragedy. It’s likely that one of them will be slotted into the September dates originally scheduled for the Blount family’s suit.
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