NEED TO KNOW
- Netflix’s new Trainwreck documentary anthology features interviews with Astroworld survivors, paramedics and festival staff
- A friend of Brianna Rodriguez, who was a victim of the deadly crowd surge, recalled hearing her “in pain”
- Rodriguez was one of 10 victims at the festival
A friend of Brianna Rodriguez, who is one of 10 victims of the deadly crowd surge that took place at Astroworld in 2021, is recounting his experience at the music festival.
In the first episode of Netflix’s documentary anthology Trainwreck, which debuted on June 10, several people who were present at the festival examine the tragedy that took place — and its aftermath.
Recalling his personal experience, Ayden, who attended the festival with a group of friends, including Rodriguez, remembered feeling “a certain fear” during Travis Scott’s headlining performance.
“One of those waves just hit both me and Bri. We all fell to our backs. I could hear her in pain. You know, asking ‘help me get out’ and stuff like that,” he said. “I was the second layer. There was people under me and then me falling on my back and then people stacking on top of me.”
He continued, “I felt like the more I kept fighting it, the more I was wasting energy. Like if you’re holding your breath underwater. I could feel the oxygen just leaving my body.”
Ayden couldn’t recall how long he was down for — “but it felt like forever.” Then, people began moving off of him, and someone helped him up.
“I saw someone’s face. They looked at me. He pulled me out,” he said. “I just remember feeling so many different things. Where’s Mikaela? Did Bri get out?”
In that moment, he panicked, and tried stopping the show by getting a cameraman’s attention but he felt like “nobody was on my side.”
“I felt like I’m helpless. I knew Bri was in that area still struggling. I just wanted to find some help,” he said.
After he found his friends, they were all “frantically looking for Bri” and found out she was taken to the hospital. By the time they arrived, they were told “we can’t do anything” to save her.
“Everyone just dropped to the floor… I felt defeated,” he said.
Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy features exclusive interviews with survivors, paramedics and festival staff.
On Nov. 6, 2021, Rodriguez’s family confirmed to PEOPLE that she was one of the victims who died at the mass casualty event during Scott’s performance at Houston’s NRG Park. She was 16.
Per her family’s Facebook post, Rodriguez was a junior in high school.
“Gone from our sites [sic], but never from our hearts,” wrote her family. “It is with profound sadness we lay to rest our beloved Brianna Rodriguez. She was a beautiful vibrant 16-year-old high school junior at Heights HS in Houston TX. Dancing was her passion and now she’s dancing her way to heaven’s pearly gates.”
In 2023, a grand jury declined to indict Scott — who previously claimed he did not hear screams for help when the crowd surge began — for his involvement in the festival.
The victims of the tragedy were Axel Acosta, Danish Baig, 27, Rodolfo “Rudy” Peña, 23, Madison Dubiski, 23, Franco Patiño, 21, Jacob Jurinek, 20, John Hilgert, 14, Bharti Shahan, 22, and Ezra Blount, 9.
Nearly 5,000 people were injured.
Read the full article here
