Astroworld security guidelines had NO plans for a crowd surge and referred to dead as ‘Smurfs’

A security handbook for Astroworld had no guidelines on how to deal with a crowd surge at the 50,000-person show, but it did instruct staff to call dead concertgoers ‘Smurfs’ and to ‘never use the term “dead” or “deceased” over the radio.’

The 56-page document, filed with Harris County, warns that ‘the potential for multiple alcohol/drug related incidents, possible evacuation needs, and the ever-present threat of a mass casualty situation are identified as key concerns.’ 

It makes no mention of what to do in the event of a crowd rush, which crushed eight people to death and injured hundreds – including a 9-year-old boy now in a coma – at the show in Houston Friday night.

Most shockingly, it instructs staff to refer to deceased crowd members as ‘Smurfs,’ after the 1980s TV show about blue animated characters. 

It is unclear why the name was chosen or if it was even used at all, but eyewitnesses have reported seeing people turn blue from lack of oxygen at the show.

The revelation comes as lawsuits continue to pile up against Scott; Drake, who also performed Friday; the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation; venue NRG Park and concert promoters Live Nation and ScoreMore Holdings. 

The Astroworld Event Operations Plan was obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the Associated Press and other outlets.

In the case of a traumatic injury resulting in death, staff were expected to request additional security support, create a perimeter, request a ‘view-blocking barrier’ and a ‘partial evacuation of the area’ and to ‘watch for angry groups.’

Such measures were difficult as concertgoers described being packed in so tightly that emergency vehicles could not get through.

One video shows Scott pausing and asking, ‘What the f*** is that?’ after an ambulance entered the crowd. 

The event also appeared to be understaffed, with an ICU nurse who attended the concert describing overwhelmed staff trying to perform CPR without proper training. 

In an Instagram post after the show, Madeline Eskins recalled seeing three bodies sprawled out behind the general admission crowd as medical staff performs CPR with little resources or training.

‘I ask where the ambu bag is, where the AED is, where the stretcher and ambulance is, where tf any s*** is and they said essentially there is none,’ Eskins writes.

‘There’s one ambu bag, one stretcher and one AED for 3 – now 4 – people who are pulseless and blue.

‘People from the crowd are trying to help. Teenagers are doing CPR trying to help but they’re doing it incorrectly. Then I see there’s other people doing CPR on people who still have a pulse bc nobody has done a pulse check. It was an absolute s**t show.’ 

Authorities in Houston are still investigating the mass casualty incident, during which Scott continued to perform for more than half an hour.

Speaking on NBC’s Today show Tuesday morning, Fire Chief Samuel Peña said that Scott should have ‘absolutely’ stopped the show after seeing what was happening in the audience. 

‘In my opinion – and this is my opinion because everything is going to be fleshed out throughout this investigation – the artist, if he notices something that’s going on, he can certainly pause that performance, turn on the lights, and say, “Hey, we’re not gonna continue until this thing is resolved.'”

The eight victims of Friday’s tragedy range in age from 14 to 27. They were Axel Acosta Avila, 21; Danish Baig, 27; Madison Dubiski, 23; John Hilgert, 14; Jacob Jurinek, 20; Franco Patino, 21; Rodolfo Peña, 23; and Brianna Rodriguez, 16. 

Bharti Shahani, a 22-year-old Texas college student, has been declared brain dead after she suffered multiple heart attacks in the deadly crush.

She remained on a ventilator at Houston Methodist Hospital last night – four days on from the tragedy that killed eight people.

Medics have told her family her chances of survival are ‘nothing,’ her distraught father told ABC13.

The security plan reads: ‘The key in properly dealing with this type of scenario is proper management of the crowd from the minute the doors open. Crowd management techniques will be employed to identify potentially dangerous crowd behavior in its early stages in an effort to prevent a civil disturbance/riot.’

Those measures appear to have been neglected as people were filmed stampeding through the entrance of the festival as early as 2pm. 

New accounts of the doomed concert indicated fire officials lost contact with emergency medics as the gravity of the situation overwhelmed first responders.

Houston fire department officials were unable to reach on-site medics because their cell phones went unanswered amid the chaos, USA Today reported.

Meanwhile, one EMT who worked the event said his two-way radio stopped functioning as emergency teams split up to help victims.

‘To give you context, the radio wasn’t working,’ the medic said on TikTok under the username remi.rich.

‘The music was way too loud. I had called for backup and for help so many times and it was just not going through.’

As the scene turned deadly, he said revelers continued to move toward the stage, seemingly oblivious to those injured around them.

‘My observations were that there was zero crowd etiquette at all,’ he said. ‘They just wanted to get closer to the show closer to Travis Scott and do their thing. They didn’t give a single damn about anyone around them.

‘It was an absolute s*** show.’

Powerhouse Texas attorney Thomas J. Henry, father of Liam Payne’s girlfriend Maya Henry, says that he is being contacted by more people ‘by the hour.’

He’s currently representing 68 audience members, according to Showbiz 411.

‘While we are all still working to understand the full scope of the Astroworld tragedy, I believe the damages suffered by its victims could total in the billions,’ he said. 

Kristian Paredes, 23, from Austin, Texas, filed a complaint obtained by DailyMail.com Sunday accusing Scott and Drake, Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation of negligence.

According to the complaint, special guest Drake ‘came on stage alongside Travis Scott and helped incite the crowd.’

On Monday, Edgar Acosta held a press conference with Texas attorney Tony Buzbee to announce he was also suing over the death of his 21-year-old son, Axel Acosta.

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‘They need to make things change in these type of events,’ he said.

‘Today it was me. 

‘I lost my son. It could’ve been you,’ Acosta said. 

Scott, who has announced that he will pay for the funerals of the eight people killed at this concert on Friday, has come under scrutiny for partying with fellow performer Drake right after the deadly show.  

‘Travis didn’t know the severity of the situation when he arrived at the party,’ a source told TMZ, adding that the rapper left the party when deaths had been confirmed.

But a ‘mass casualty event’ had been declared by city officials 30 minutes before he cut his performance short.

Scott is also facing backlash for his previous attempts, recorded on video and in police reports, to incite chaos at his shows.

In August 2015, the 29-year-old, who is dating Kylie Jenner, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct after his fans jumped a security barricade at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. 

‘All my real ragers jump the barricade right now. Let’s go. Come over,’ he said at the 2015 show as his young fans obliged. ‘I want chaos.’ Hundreds were seen storming towards the stage, although there were no reports of anyone being injured. 

It is not known if Scott incited the crowd to move forward on Friday. 

In February 2018, he pled guilty to another misdemeanor charge – this one for disorderly conduct – after he encouraged his fans to rush the stage and bypass security at a May 2017 concert at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in the city of Rogers. 

Scott paid a 7,465.31 fine, according to KFSM.

According to a police report and video from the Arkansas event, Scott told the crowd: ‘This pit looks empty, I don’t know if y’all scared or what but this is your last chance. Security let them through, security let them through.’

One to two thousand people rushed the stage following Scott’s command, according to Lt. David C. Jones, who was working extra duty at the concert.

‘After this occurred I worked my way down to the pit to assist the other officers and security,’ Jones wrote in a police report obtained by DailyMail.com.

‘Once I was in the pit I assisted several hurt people out of the pit. One of the females we took out of the pit had to be carried because she was unconscious. We carried her behind the security gates and laid her on the ground, she then went into convulsions.

‘I had to radio dispatch to have an ambulance come back stage to assist her. I lost count of the number of people that I had to help out of the pit.

‘Most of them were young females who were visibly upset and crying and most of them were complaining that they had been hit, pushed, or trapped against the security barriers.’

A lawyer for Kyle Green, a 27-year-old who was injured at Scott’s April 2017 concert at Terminal 5 in New York City, says that Green was ‘devastated and heartbroken’ for the families of the eight people who died at Scott’s Friday night concert. 

Green says he was forced over the edge of a balcony at the venue, which he called ‘severely crowded.’ He broke several bones and vertebrae and can only walk with a ‘significant, significant disability.’

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Green’s attorney Howard Hershenhorn said that Scott’s security picked Green up ‘like a sack of potatoes’ instead of ‘putting him in a neck brace and on the backboard.’

‘He’s even more incensed by the fact that it could have been avoided had Travis learned his lesson in the past and changed his attitude about inciting people to behave in such a reckless manner,’ Hershenhorn told Rolling Stone.

At the 2017 show, Scott had encouraged another fan to jump off the balcony.

‘I see you, but are you gonna do it?’ Scott asked. ‘They gonna catch you. Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared!’

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