There are worries about conflicts of interest in the criminal investigation into the deaths of eight concertgoers during Mr. Scott’s performance at the Astroworld festival.
As his music career ascended, Travis Scott developed more than the usual ties between a rap megastar and his hometown leaders. He knew the Houston police chief. His mother gave away turkeys with the mayor on Thanksgiving. He received a key to the city. Those connections have added a layer of complication to an already freighted criminal investigation into the deaths of eight young concertgoers, who collapsed as a crowd surged toward the stage while Mr. Scott performed on Friday night during his Astroworld festival in Houston. Houston police officers had been providing security, both on the clock and moonlighting as employees of the event organizers, according to city officials. Now the same Police Department, along with the city’s Fire Department, is in charge of the investigation. Among the questions that touch on the role of the local police were the decisions of whether, when and how to cut off the performance by Mr. Scott, who continued the show for roughly 40 minutes after the city had declared a “mass casualty event” at the concert. On Tuesday, Mayor Sylvester Turner met with top officials from both agencies, and his office released a collection of permits the city had issued for the festival. “No stone will be left unturned,” the mayor told reporters at an unrelated event. “How did it happen? Where were there missteps? Was the ball dropped and by whom?” At the same time, during a meeting of county commissioners, the top county official for Houston, Lina Hidalgo, reiterated her strong interest in seeing an independent investigation of the deaths. But any inquiry by the county could be difficult to pursue. According to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions about an independent investigation who requested anonymity to share details of a private conversation, the ability of the county to do anything has been limited by the criminal investigation announced by the city’s police chief, Troy Finner, in the immediate aftermath of the concert. Ms. Hidalgo has been considering bringing in an outside law firm or other third-party investigator.
