Buzbee on Astroworld settlement: 'We hope they will bring much-needed change'

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A makeshift memorial to the victims of the ill-fated Astroworld Festival. | Wikimedia Commons

The families of two of the 10 people who lost their lives at the Astroworld Festival have reached settlements in their respective cases, according to a report from Houston ABC affiliate KTRK.

The station reported that the settlements put an end to the lawsuits filed by the families of 21-year-old Axel Acosta and 16-year-old Brianna Rodriguez. 

Acosta came from the Pacific Northwest to attend the show while Rodriguez was a high school student who lived in the Houston Heights neighborhood.

Per KTRK, attorney Tony Buzbee of The Buzbee Law Firm in Houston confirmed the settlement for Acosta’s family.

"The claims brought by the family of Axel Acosta against Travis Scott, Live Nation, Apple and others involved in the Astroworld tragedy have settled,” Buzbee said in a statement, KTRK reported. “The terms are confidential … We hope that this lawsuit and settlement will bring much-needed change in the way concerts are planned, permitted, organized and executed, to make such events safer for all concerned."

According to the report, attorneys with broad knowledge of the cases told KTRK that Rodriguez’s family has agreed to the settlement of their own.

Astroworld is the brainchild of 31-year-old Missouri City rapper Travis Scott.

Scott, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, has been implicated in numerous lawsuits arising from the night of Nov. 5, 2021.

Houston Daily reported earlier this year that a report by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences listed compression asphyxia as the cause of death for the deceased, the youngest among them a 9-year-old boy who went to the show with his father.

A task force created by the Office of the Texas Governor in response to the ill-fated festival published a report that outlines strategies and recommendations to protect concertgoers at future events.

The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office (HCFMO), in turn, asserted the Texas Task Force on Concert Safety’s report mentioned two statutes that had nothing to do with Astroworld, per Houston Daily.