Cops reveal crazed man injected victim with opioids before stampede that killed eight at Travis Scott concert, slam organizers of Astroworld Festival for taking 40 minutes to stop it and say youngest victim was 14-years-old

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Police investigating a deadly crush that killed eight at a Travis Scott-headlined festival in Houston say a crazed man injected at least one person with opioids during the chaos.  

Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner made the shocking claim at a press conference Saturday after hours of rumors about the Astroworld Fest tragedy, and Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner revealed the victims were aged between 14 and 27. 

'One of the narratives was that some individual was injecting other people with drugs. We do have a report of a security officer, according to the medical staff that was out and treated him last night,' Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner said at Saturday's conference.

'He was reaching over to restrain or grab a citizen and he felt a prick in his neck.

'He went unconscious, they administered Narcan. He was revived, and medical staff did notice a prick similar to a prick you would get if somebody was trying to inject,' he added. 

It is unclear what drug was injected into the security guard, although Narcan is used to revive people who've overdosed on opioids, including fentanyl. 

There have not been any reports of concertgoers being injected with drugs.  

It also remains unclear if that incident was connected to the deadly crush that also left 25 in hospital. No further updates have been given on whether the needle stabber was arrested. 

Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people were filmed stampeding through a VIP entrance at the Live Nation-organized event, sparking fears of overcrowding and poor crowd control.   

Travis Scott was filmed continuing to perform after eight people were crushed to death - including two victims aged just 14 and 16 - at Houston's Astroworld Festival on Friday night with one witness saying it was a 'floor of bodies'. 

Video circulating on Twitter showed the crowd chanting 'stop the show, stop the show!' 

'Fans were recording the concert and people doing CPR,' attendee and ICU nurse Madeline Eskins told Rolling Stone. 'Fans were yelling at the stage crew around us, saying stop the concert, people are dying. No one listened.' 

Scott was seen sobbing afterwards, as Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Pena warned the death toll could rise further, with 11 people rushed to hospital suffering from cardiac arrests. Families of six out of the eight victims have been notified of their loved one's death.

Left: A graphic video showed an unconscious young man surrounded by Houston police officers as they guided him onto the ground in the middle of the crowd. Right: They rolled the man onto his side while shining lights into his eyes and Scott was seen in the background as he continued to perform from a platform feet above the crowd

Mayor Turner said the youngest of the deceased was a 14-year-old Texas boy.

John Hilgret, of Hunters Creek Village, was identified as one of the concert fatalities on Saturday by officials at Memorial High School, where he was a freshman student.

Hilgret attended Friday's concert with his long-time friend, Robby Hendrix, 15.

Henrdix's mother, Tracy Faulkner, bought her son's ticket it for his birthday and 'ultimately regrets the decision'.

'Everything about that night was a tragedy,' Faulkner told the Houston Chronicle. 'They were both in the same place at the same time and one came home and one we will never see.'

She said Hilgret and Hendrix had known each other for years and played football together.

'John was a good student and athlete and so polite. He was the sweetest and smartest young man,' she shared.  

A 21-year-old college student is also among the eight who died at the concert.

The University of Dayton confirmed to DailyMail.com that student Franco Patino, of Naperville, Illinois, attended the concert in Houston on Friday.

The University of Dayton confirmed to DailyMail.com that student Franco Patino (pitured), of Naperville, Illinois, attended the concert in Houston on Friday

The mechanical engineering technology major was involved in several campus extracurriculars and had most recently been working in a co-op program in Mason, Ohio. 

University president Eric F. Spina extended his sympathy and prayers to Patino's loved ones and the campus community. 

Patino's fraternity, Alpha Psi Lambda, also issued condolences to his friends and family. 

'It is with a very heavy heart, Alpha Psi Lambda National, Inc. shares that our brother, Franco 'Cuauhocelotl' Patino, has passed on to Omega Chapter,' the organization wrote on Facebook.

'We extend our condolences to his family, friends, Alpha Nu Chapter and all that share in this loss. May his memory be eternal.' 

The college senior joined the fraternity's University of Dayton chapter last year.  The organization says information regarding funeral arrangements have not been released yet.

University of Dayton student Franco Patino, 21, was among those killed at the concert

Danish Baig (pictured) has also been identified as one of the deceased. His brother, Basil Baig, accused Travis Scott of provoking the chaos by 'calling people to the stage to jump into the crowd' and for 'not stopping the show'

Basil Mirza Baig took to Facebook Saturday announcing that his brother, Danish Baig, 27, also died at Astroworld.

'My brother was killed in this horrendous event that was managed poorly and supervised by such horrible people,' Baig wrote. 

'People were trampled, walked, and stomped on. My brother tried to save my sister in law from these horrendous acts that were being done to her in the process he lost his life.'

Baig described Danish as a beautiful soul who put everyone before himself.

'Last night he showed his courageous act to save my sister-in-law from those horrendous things that were being done. I am lost of words and in true trauma from this event,' he added.

'I was there and I wasn't able to save my brother. People were hitting pushing and shoving and did not care for anyones life.'

Baig also accused of rapper of provoking the chaos by 'calling people to the stage to jump into the crowd' and for 'not stopping the show.' 

'This is not the end,' Baig warned. 'My family and I will go to the full extent to make sure he is brought to justice.'  

In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said he was 'absolutely devastated by what took place last night'.

He pledged to work 'together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.'

The deadly crowd surge happened at 9.15pm and Pena said in a news conference on Saturday afternoon that the 'mass casualty incident' was declared at 9.15pm. Nearly an hour later, at 10.10pm, the concert producer Live Nation halted the show.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner then confirmed that of the eight who were killed two were under 18, two were 21, two were 23, one was 27 and one victim's age remains unknown.

Turner also said that 25 people in total were transported to the hospital after the 'tragic event' and 13 are still hospitalized, including five that are under the age of 18. 

Distressing video showed an unconscious male concertgoer being rushed to a medical assistance area after he passed out in the crush, which happened after people surged towards the stage shortly after 9.15pm CST Friday night. Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people were seen stampeding through the event's VIP entrance without being checked, sparking fears of overcrowding.    

As the chaos unfolded the rapper, who completed his 75-minute show, even appeared to glance in the direction of passed-out fans as the show went on. Scott halted the performance at least once was filmed calling for security to help distressed fans in the front row.   

Although he completed his 75-minute performance, at one point the rapper was filmed calling for help. In another video he stood on a platform with his microphone while chaos unfolded beneath him.  

Meanwhile, Scott's girlfriend Kylie Jenner, who attended the event, was blasted online for posting a clip of an ambulance tending to the injured and dead as the chaos unfolded.  

But other videos from the night showed distraught fans begging concert staff to halt the performance and help people escape the surge.

'People are f***ing dying, I want to save somebody's life,' a man said as he climbed on a platform where a cameraman was filming the performance.

'That's somebody's kid! I want to save them!' he screamed - but to no avail. Astroworld Fest's organizers offered their condolences to the families of those killed in a statement Saturday, and appealed for anyone with information to contact Houston Police.  

Meanwhile, TMZ reported that a 'key person' connected to Astroworld said that Friday night was actually the result of a 'targeted attack' after 'someone in the crowd went crazy and began injecting people with some sort of drug, which caused panic and then a surge'. Cops said they're keeping an open mind, although Houston's fire chief says he thinks the tragedy was caused by a crush. 

According to the Houston Chronicle Friday's deadly incident was not the first time the concert's producer Live Nation Worldwide and Live Nation Entertainment has come under scrutiny for OSHA safety and antitrust violations. The live-entertainment company - which puts on 40,000 shows per year, according to its website, and which Billboard has cited as the world's largest - has faced charges relating to 16 violations and has paid more than $83million in penalties.

Mayor Turner said the investigation remains active with the police department's homicide and narcotics team, adding that the local government is also speaking with Live Nation spokespeople. 

'We will probably be at it for quite some time to determine exactly what happened,' Turner said.

Around 2pm hundreds of fans stormed the festival's VIP entrance. About seven hours later the surge in front of the main stage killed eight people but the two events appear to be unrelated

Videos posted to Twitter captured a young man and woman climbing up to a platform where a cameraman was filming the performance and begging him to halt the concert. 'People are f***ing dying, I want to save somebody's life!' the man screamed

Another clip showed the same man climbing up towards the cameraman joined by a woman pleading with the staff member to stop the concert.

Although inaudible, the cameraman was evidently trying to shoo the revelers off the platform and back into the crowd.

In yet another graphic video an unconscious young man was surrounded by Houston police officers who guided him onto the ground. They rolled the man onto his side while shining lights into his eyes.

Scott was seen in the background as he continued to perform from a platform feet above the crowd. But a source close to the star told Page Six that he had 'no idea what was going on, he was on stage performing'.

'He's beside himself, I've never heard him like that. He was in tears,' the source added, noting that Jenner was 'by his side right now and supporting him'. 

On Instagram a woman by the username @seannafaith claimed to be the person who climbed onto the cameraman's platform to plead for help said that the crush was like a 'Jenga tower topple,' and added that fellow concertgoers were 'drowning in people'. 

She detailed climbing onto the platform, which 'looked directly into the crowd,' and told him that 'there were people dying'.

'I screamed over and over again. He wouldn't even look in the direction,' the Instagrammer wrote. 'He became angry,' she added before noting that the cameraman then called on 'someone else' to whisk her off the 15-foot platform.

'The other man grabbed my arm and told me he would push me off the platform with no sides if I didn't get down,' she recalled. 

'Breathing became something only a few were capable of,' she described, explaining that 'the music continued' as 'the shoving got harder and harder...and people began to choke one another as the mass swayed'.

'We knew there was a very big chance some of us would not make it out alive,' she wrote in an Instagram post captioned: 'I can't write anymore. To all the lost souls tonight, you were robbed.' 

The eight people who died have yet to be identified and police have asked those who have not heard from loved ones who attended the event to report to the local Wyndham Hotel where a 'reunification center' has been set up.

Police are reportedly working to identify the victims are are awaiting the medical examiner's investigation to determine a cause of death. 

Speaking out for the first time since the deadly surge, Scott tweeted on Saturday around 12.15pm saying he's 'absolutely devastated' and is 'committed to working together with the Houston community,' including the police department. 

Travis Scott stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front of the stage and videos posted to social media captured the rap star asking security for help

Scott's girlfriend Kylie Jenner - who is pregnant with the couple's second child - posted this selfie to her Instagram from her hotel room before attending the concert with the pair's three-year-old daughter Stormi

A statement was posted this statement to the Astroworld festival's Instagram account. There was no caption and the comments were turned off

Meanwhile, a memorial is growing outside of NRG Park.

People placed letters, balloons and bouquets at the gate by the venue. 

'I wanted to set it up, just cause the lives lost,' Matthew, who set up the makeshift memorial, told KPRC's Rilwan Balogun. 

'The community right now, from everybody that left #AstroWorld is definitely split, something to bring us together.'

He continued: 'Even the online community come together just to come over here, to put something down.'

Astroworld organizers canceled the rest of the festival, scheduled to continue on Saturday.

'Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival family tonight - especially those we lost and their loved ones,' they said on the event's Instagram page. 'We are focused on supporting local officials'.

A memorial is growing outside of NRG Park

People placed letters, balloons and bouquets at the gate by the venue

Flowers are placed Saturday outside of the canceled Astroworld festival at NRG Park

As far as this weekend's two-day event, an estimated 50,000 people showed up after it was cancelled last year due to Covid. But Friday night's show was called off after chaos broke out just after 9pm local time, and the music festival's second day has now been scrapped.

Thousands of festivalgoers surged towards the stage while Scott was performing at NRG Park in Houston, leading to a crush. 

Jenner - who's pregnant with her and Travis's second child - was also watching his set alongside the pair's three-year-old daughter Stormi.

A video Jenner shared to her Instagram story panning the crowd indicated that she was not near the front. The 24-year-old billionaire has since been slammed for the footage, which showed an emergency vehicle in the middle of the crowd.

There was no suggestion that Jenner or Stormi were injured.

One witness and in his friend, who were in the front row, told KHOU that he 'caught, like, 20 elbows to my head' while his friend chimed in that he 'got a bloody lip (and) my leg's all bruised up'.

The two agreed that there were 'too many people'. 'I could literally see somebody not being able to breathe in that situation,' one man said, adding that he saw multiple people collapse. 

'It got to the point where we had to walk over people's bodies,' the other noted and recalled fans getting trampled on. 

But the rap star reportedly stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front of the stage.  

'Security. Somebody help, jump in real quick,' Scott said. The bass continued to rumble as he continued: 'Somebody jump in. C'mon c'mon.' 

While it's unclear whether security was able to assist in time more footage posted to social media showed Scott's view from stage - and very bright red lights of an emergency vehicle were clearly seen flashing from the crowd.

Before the surge even happened KTRK reported that hundreds of revelers - who did not appear to have tickets - stormed the event's VIP entrance around 2pm local time on Friday.

Video showed the crowd of youngsters surging through metal detector arches, with at least one also seen jumping an adjoining fence.

Yet the stampede did not appear to be related to the multiple injuries Friday night and around seven hours later, at 9.15pm, the fatal surge took place, Pena said, with people at the back pushing people in front of the main stage forward, crushing them against barriers. 

Pena explained: 'The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic.' 

The fire chief said that the Houston Fire Department had 55 units at the festival and Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite said he was on-duty at the festival along with 367 police officers and 241 security personnel. 

Finner corrected the figures at Saturday's news conference and said there were actually 528 Houston Police Department officers on duty after a lot of cops from the day shift worked into the night. Live Nation also reported that they had 755 security personnel working during the concert.

The chief of police then commended the officers who responded to the mayhem and were able to end the show by 10.10pm - nearly an hour after the surge.

Twenty-five arrests were also made on Friday - 23 for trespassing, one for marijuana possession and one for public intoxication. 

A harrowing video taken by a bystander in the crowd captured an officer performing CPR on a man in cardiac arrest

Yet another disturbing clip showed a concertgoer receiving CPR on the back of an emergency vehicle as it rushed him through the crowd and away from the scene

In a video posted to Twitter an unconscious reveler was recorded being crowd-surfed towards security personnel who were seen carrying the young man's body away

Harrowing footage on social media showed paramedics performing CPR on several people on the floor in the crowd. Seventeen people were taken to hospitals, with 11 of those in cardiac arrest, while others were treated at a field hospital in the park. 

'That number may rise because we did transport more people in critical condition. We took 11 that they were performing CPR on en route to the hospital,' Pena told MSNBC on Saturday as he referred to the crush as a 'mass casualty incident'. 

Officials in Texas confirmed eight people were killed but insisted that the cause of death was unknown and urged people not to 'speculate' about the chain of events that sparked the tragedy.

'We had at least eight confirmed fatalities tonight and scores of individuals that were injured,' Pena said. 

'The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries. People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.' 

In a disturbing livestream of the concert posted to Instagram people in the crowd can be heard screaming: 'Help! Help me up Trav!' 

One said of the tragic night: 'I think it's very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight. If you don't have facts, if you don't have evidence, I'm not going to speak against that. We have hurting families out here.'  

Houston Police Department's Executive Assistant Chief Satterwhite gave a first-hand account of what he saw while on-duty: 'It happened all at once. It seemed like it just happened... over the course of just a few minutes. Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode.' 

Before the surge even happened hundreds of revelers - who did not appear to have tickets - stormed the event's VIP entrance around 2pm local time on Friday

The crowd of youngsters surging through metal detector arches, with at least one also seen jumping an adjoining fence, but the stampede did not appear to have any connection to the deadly surge that happened seven hours later

Multiple ambulances and other personnel were seen at NRG Park on Friday

An ambulance was seen making its way through the crowd during the Astroworld music festival in Houston

Travis Scott performing onstage during the third annual Astroworld Festival at NRG Park in Houston, Texas, on November 5, 2021

Scott performs at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on November 5, 2021

Travis Scott performs at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park

Astroworld organizers canceled the rest of the festival, scheduled to continue on Saturday.

'Our hearts are with the Astroworld Festival family tonight - especially those we lost and their loved ones,' they said on the event's Instagram page. 'We are focused on supporting local officials'. 

Hours earlier Drake joined Scott on-stage - which was live-streamed by Apple Music - and posted photos to Instagram after the performance.  

Scott's girlfriend Kylie Jenner and their daughter Stormi Webster watched the rapper perform in front of the huge crowd at his Astroworld festival.

Other short videos and pictures Jenner shared to her Instagram story included a special trailer with Stormi's name affixed to the door.

The three-year-old joined her mother in the crowd in another video that showed Scott's high-energy performance, featuring incredible pyrotechnics. They were not near the stage and there is no suggestion that either of them were injured.

Jenner's sister Kendall was in attendance too and shared footage of an energized crowd dancing at Scott performed on a fiery stage.  

Astroworld is rapper Scott's music festival and is being attended by a host of celebrities, including Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner. Tickets sold for $180 for general admission and $490 for 'stargazer' tickets.  

A handout photo made available by the Houston Fire Department showing Chief Samuel Pena and Harris County leaders briefing the media in regards to a stampede on the opening night of a music festival in Houston

Left: Jenner and Scott's three-year-old daughter Stormi joined her mother in the crowd in another video that showed the rapper's high-energy performance. They were not near the front and there is no suggestion either of them were hurt. Right: Jenner illustrated Stormi's VIP experience by snapping a photo of her trailer

Astroworld is rapper Travis Scott's sold-out music festival featuring numerous acts

SZA performs at Day 1 of the Astroworld Music Festival at NRG Park on Friday