The family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, the youngest victim of the Astroworld Festival stampede, has reportedly turned down Travis Scott’s offer to pay for the boy’s funeral.
“Your client’s offer is declined,” the family’s lawyer Bob Hilliard wrote the rapper’s attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, in a letter obtained by Rolling Stone.
“I have no doubt Mr. Scott feels remorse. His journey ahead will be painful. He must face and hopefully see that he bears some of the responsibility for this tragedy,” he added.
Petrocelli made the offer on behalf of his client in a letter to Hilliard and his co-counsel last week.
“Travis is devastated by the tragedy that occurred at the Astroworld Festival and grieves for the families whose loved ones died or were injured,” he wrote Wednesday, a day after the boy was laid to rest, the news outlet reported.
“Travis is committed to doing his part to help the families who have suffered and begin the long process of healing in the Houston community. Toward that end, Travis would like to pay for the funeral expenses for Mr. Blount’s son,” Petrocelli added.
The lawyer also insisted that acceptance of Scott’s offer would “have no effect” on the lawsuit filed by Ezra’s father, Treston, against his client and other parties in connection with the death.
In his response, Hilliard reportedly wrote: “There may be, and I hope there is, redemption and growth for him on the other side of what this painful process will be — and perhaps one day, once time allows some healing for the victims and acceptance of responsibility by Mr. Scott and others, Treston and Mr. Scott might meet, as there is also healing in that.”
He added: “To lose a child in the manner Treston lost Ezra compounds the pain. 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.”
Hilliard told Rolling Stone on Monday that he and co-counsel Ben Crump also rejected a suggested meeting between Scott and the boy’s family.
“We were pretty firm. With all due respect, no. This isn’t a photo-op story here. This is a ‘who’s responsible and why’ type of investigation. And he’s on the shortlist,” he told the outlet about the performer.
Petrocelli, who famously represented Fred Goldman at the wrongful death trial that found O.J. Simpson liable in the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone.
Ezra had been sitting on his dad’s shoulders when Scott opened his set at NRG Park in Houston on Nov. 5. Both were caught up in the chaos that unfolded when fans rushed the stage.
The boy’s death raised the tragic concert’s death toll to 10. On the night of the show, eight victims were pronounced dead. The ninth victim was a 22-year-old college student Bharti Shahani.
Crump has filed a lawsuit for the Blount family and nearly 100 other families in civil suits against various persons and entities connected to the tragic concert.
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