The families of at least five of the ten victims killed during the crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld concert in Houston, TX are rejecting his offer to pay for their funerals, with their attorneys making scathing comments slamming Scott for an offer they viewed as disingenuous.

Ten people were killed and hundreds injured at the concert in early November when they were crushed and trampled in the crowd. Scott has been sharply criticized for his long-running habit of riling up the crowds at his concerts and reports that he ignored warnings from local police and concertgoers that the situation in the crowd was getting dangerous and unstable. Social media posts showed video of distraught people climbing up the edge of the stage and screaming “there is someone dead!” and “stop the show!” but they were ignored.

Several days after the concert, Scott publicly announced that he would cover funeral expenses for the victims. According to a report by Rolling Stone, however, half of the victims’ families so far are declining Scott’s offer.

Ezra Blount was the youngest victim at only 9 years old. He was on his father Treston Blount’s shoulders watching the concert when they became trapped in the deadly crowd surge. Crushed by the crowd, Treston couldn’t breathe and passed out, and then was separated from his son. The family later found Ezra at a local hospital, grievously injured. He spent several days in a medically induced coma before passing away.

Scott’s attorney sent a letter to Blount’s family offering to pay for Ezra’s funeral expenses. Bob Hilliard, who is representing the family along with Benjamin Crump, told Rolling Stone on Monday that they had rejected the offer, sharing a letter he sent in response.

“To lose a child in the manner Treston lost Ezra compounds the pain,” he wrote in the letter declining the payment. “As a parent, Treston cannot help but agonize over the terrible idea that Ezra’s last minutes were filled with terror, suffering, suffocation, and worst of all, surrounded by strangers, his dad unconscious underneath the uncontrolled crowd.”

Four more families have now followed the Blounts in rejecting Scott’s offer to pay for their loved ones’ funeral expenses. Rolling Stone’s Ethan Millman reported that their attorneys “all described Scott’s offer as an attempt to lessen public pressure rather than a genuine display of remorse,” including Philip Corboy, representing the families of friends Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino, both 21 years old; Tony Buzbee, representing the family of Axel Acosta, 21; and Richard Mithoff, representing the family of John Hilgert, 14.

Mithoff told Rolling Stone that the Hilgert family was “set on making change and ensuring this never happens at a concert again,” and was never going to seriously consider accepting Scott’s offer to pay for their son’s funeral. “I find offering to pay for funerals frankly demeaning and really inappropriate to the magnitude of the tragedy that unfolded.”

Corboy dismissed the outreach from Scott’s attorneys as just “trying to lessen the public outcry,” and criticized Scott for reaching out through his lawyers instead of directly.

Buzbee was more direct: “It’s bullshit. If you gave a shit about these families, you wouldn’t have to put out a press release for everyone to see saying he’s willing to pay for a funeral.”

He also blasted Scott for continuing to refuse to take any responsibility. The family didn’t want funeral expenses from Scott, he said. “Whatever we get from him we’re going to get through the court system.”

The post Attorneys for Astroworld Victims Reject Travis Scott’s Offer to Pay for Funerals as ‘Bullsh*t’ and ‘Frankly Demeaning’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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