Treston Blount, the father of nine-year-old Ezra who sustained “life-threatening injuries” after becoming separated from his father during Travis Scott’s ill-fated Astroworld performance in Houston has spoken out about the incident.
The young fan remains in a medically-induced coma after he was trampled in the stampede that left nine dead and hundreds injured.
“[Ezra] was stoked. He was ready to go,” Treston told ABC Houston 13, adding that Ezra had become a fan of the rapper through his Fortnite and McDonalds partnerships.
“When I found out that he was a big fan [of Scott] I was like, “Oh yeah, we gotta go, we gotta go see Travis live.”
He explained that he and Ezra stood further back in the Astroworld crowd “’cause the front can get a little wild,” but once the rapper’s performance began, they were unable to avoid the crowd surge.
“We was in the back, way in the back and I figured, ‘Okay, this is cool,’ because y’know, the front can get a little wild,” Treston told reporter Stefania Okolie. “The countdown started [and] everything was cool – for a split second.”
“It was like a horrified movie.”
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“I’m yelling out ‘I can’t breathe,’ there’s other people around me saying they can’t breathe. It was definitely a moment where I didn’t know what else to do,” Treston said.
Treston fell unconscious during the crowd surge, and when he regained consciousness he was shown a picture of his son in a medically induced coma in hospital.
“Just to see him in that condition… I just wasn’t ready for that.”
“I could tell that he was damaged,” Treston added. “I’m not ready to lose my boy at all. We still got a bunch of living to do… that’s my boy.”
Meanwhile, Treston’s grandmother Tericia, previously revealed the extent of the boy’s injuries to Rolling Stone, “It’s horrific. We’re just hanging in there, trying to stay strong. He has injuries to his kidney, to his lung, to his liver. Basically, every organ has damage.
“He had cardiac arrest. His heart is weak and has damage as well. And his brain has swelling, and he’s in an induced coma. They’re just trying to keep him comfortable and trying to figure out a plan for him. They tried to take him off the medications that were paralysing him, to keep him still, and they had to put him back on.
“We’re just at that place right now, just hoping for the best in spite of all the negative information.”
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump has since stated that he will be filing up to 98 civil suits connected to the tragedy at Astroworld Festival, adding that he is representing more than 200 victims who suffered mentally and physically.
“We will make sure that they get justice because this should have never happened,” said Crump.
“It is also about making sure Live Nation and anybody else who had anything to do with the failure here that caused people to lose their children. Nobody should ever die from going to a concert. In the future, safety must be paramount.”
For more on this topic, follow the Hip Hop Observer.
Watch Treston Blount discuss the Astroworld tragedy:
9YO Ezra Blount remains on life support today. I sat down with his father last night for a tough conversation. He explains why he brought his young child to #AstroWorld – a festival that NO ONE SHOULD HAVE DIED AT. Story: pic.twitter.com/IjhAYzVKnN
— Stefania Okolie (@StefaniaOkolie) November 12, 2021