A 22-year-old college senior was reported Thursday to be the ninth death from the tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival. The attorney for Bharti Shahani said she died Wednesday night.
“Bharti was a shining star in the community,” attorney James Lassiter said at a Thursday news conference announcing the Astroworld death. The video above shows clips from the news conference. “She was a sister, a daughter, a high-achieving college student about to graduate from Texas A&M University with high, high grades.” Shahani’s mother Karishma became emotional at the news conference.
“What happened to her? I want my baby back. I’m empty here,” Karishma said, pointing to her heart.
According to a Wednesday update from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner three people were still in critical condition as of earlier in the day Wednesday. That update came a day after the family of a 9-year-old boy who attended the concert said the child was in a medically induced coma after sustaining injuries to his heart, lungs and brain.
The investigation into the Astroworld tragedy, in which hundreds of fans surged toward the stage during headliner Travis Scott’s performance, is currently being handled by the Houston Police Department. On Wednesday, Police Chief Troy Finner held his first news conference on the tragedy since Saturday. The video above also shows clips from that news conference.
“I’m telling you as chief of police, this is my agency, we’re going to hold people accountable,” Finner said. “And I think that the family, we owe that to them.”
Part of the conversation in the fallout of the Astroworld tragedy is whether the Houston Police Department should be handling the investigation, considering the department was tasked with maintaining safety and security on that night. At the Wednesday news conference, Finner was asked why he has not turned the investigation over to another law enforcement agency.
“Because I’m really confident who we are here at HPD, and I think we can do our own investigation,” Finner said. “We’re only a few days into this, and I’m pretty confident of what our investigators are doing already.”