Travis Scott’s offer to cover the funeral expenses for nine-year-old Ezra Blount, the youngest victim to die at Astroworld, was rebuffed by the boy’s family in a new heartbreaking letter obtained Monday by Rolling Stone.
“Your client’s offer is declined. 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,”Bob Hilliard, a Blount family lawyer, responded with a blistering reply.
The offer from Scott was sent to Hilliard and his co-counsel Ben Crump last Wednesday by the rapper’s new lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli. Ezra was laid into rest on November 23, at a Texas funeral.
“Travis is devastated by the tragedy that occurred at the Astroworld Festival and grieves for the families whose loved ones died or were injured. 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 wrote.
Petrocelli is well-known for his representation of Fred Goldman in the wrongful death case that resulted in O.J. Simpson civilly liable for the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, claimed in his Wednesday letter that acceptance of Scott’s offer would “have no effect” on the lawsuit filed by Ezra’s dad, Treston Blount, against Scott and others.
Hilliard replied that “for now,” Scott “must respect”His own “devastation” pales in comparison to that of Ezra’s family.
“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,”Hilliard wrote.
In the meantime, he likened Ezra’s death to “a faucet of unimaginable pain that has no off handle.”
“To lose a child in the manner Treston lost Ezra compounds the pain,”He wrote. “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.”
Talk to Rolling Stone on Monday, Hilliard said Scott’s camp previously reached out to Crump regarding the possibility of setting up an in-person meeting. “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 short list,”Hilliard mentioned Scott.
Ezra was on his dad’s shoulders at Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston on Nov. 5 when the two became trapped in the deadly crowd surge that claimed the lives of 10 people, the boy’s grandparents previously confirmed to Rolling Stone.
“Everyone was pushing. It was so tight with no exits. His dad couldn’t breathe at all and passed out. We don’t really know what happened to Ezra after that,”Tericia Blount, grandmother, said. Ezra was found at a nearby hospital as a John Doe by his family. Ezra died on November 14 after a prolonged medically-induced coma.
Alex Hilliard, another lawyer representing the Blount family, said Monday that Treston and Ezra’s mom, Tamara Byrd, are “attempting to band together and move forward, but it’s a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute survival mode they’re in.”
“No parents should ever have to experience what Tamara and Treston have experienced,”He stated.
The following is a VideoRemembering Ezra shared on GoFundMe pageThe boy, who was a big fan of Fortnite and skateboarding, is seen performing a SpongeBob SquarePants joke and lip-syncing along with his dad.
Petrocelli didn’t immediately respond to a request from Rolling StoneMonday. Now the chair of the trial practice at O’Melveny in Los Angeles, he also famously represented Donald Trump and his now-defunct Trump University in class action lawsuits that settled for $25 million.