California man recalls escape from Travis Scott concert that left 8 dead in Houston

Lucas Naccarati traveled far to attend the Astroworld Festival in Houston.

But he left the event as the Friday night headliner, Travis Scott, was in the midst of the second song of his set. The Arcadia man walked out of NRG Park shirtless, shoeless, bruised and shaken.

“Wow, you looked like you had a good time,” a security guard said to him as he passed by.

The 26-year-old Naccarati stopped and shook his head. He said he had just watched at least one person die on the concert floor.

He was with about 100 people who were gathered at a spot about 50 feet away from the festival’s main stage at 8:15 p.m. Friday, 45 minutes before Scott was scheduled to perform. The audience stood ,shoulder-to-shoulder, 30 minutes later and continued to grow denser.

“I probably can’t leave here if I really wanted to,” he remembered thinking as more people joined the crowd. “It was: choose a position, and you’re stuck. You could not scratch your face if you wanted to.”

Shortly after Scott began performing his first song of the night, “Escape Plan,” Naccarati saw a short blonde woman and her boyfriend struggling to get out of the crowd and crying for help. He was nearly knocked down as he grabbed her arm. Desperately, she then gripped the waistband of his shorts as they pushed their way to the back of the venue.

“We got about five feet, and that’s when a wave just hit us so hard from behind, just a wave of people just pushing because everyone was leaving from the Sizza concert and were running to the main stage,” Naccarati said.

At that point Naccarati nearly lost his balance. He felt one of his feet come down on someone’s chest, and felt the other land on someone’s arm or leg as he stepped back to steady himself.

“I just felt something breaking,” he said.

Fans continued to stream onto the floor as Naccarati and the people following him tried to free themselves. It took about 10 minutes for them to walk 70 feet to the edge of the crowd. They were barely able to catch their breath when “another girl started yelling at the top of  her lungs,” Naccarati said.

That second woman fainted in his arms as he picked her up and carried her away. He could not feel her pulse before he began performing CPR on her.

After more than a minute of chest compressions, her eyes fluttered open. As he tried to flag down a security guard for help, Naccarati spotted a young man “lifeless on the floor, getting stomped on,” he said.

That man was covered in dirt and bruises, and his eyes had rolled to the back of his head as Naccarati dragged him away. Audience members who were unaware of the crisis continued to step on him as the U.S. Marine Corps veteran tried to resuscitate him.

“If I don’t get out of here, I’m also going to get trampled,” Naccarati thought as he kneeled over the unmoving man and struggled against a constant wave of people. He feared that the person he was trying to help was already dead, and decided he needed to escape.

As all this took place, Scott continued to perform. One audience member said the show went on for at least 20 minutes before paramedics were able to reach crushed and suffocated audience members, according to CNN. A total of eight people died, and at least 25 were hospitalized.

“Batman himself could have been there, and he couldn’t have done anything,” Naccarati said.

Houston police have launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal charges might be filed in connection with the chaotic event. Meanwhile, concertgoers have begun filing lawsuits against Scott and Live Nation, the company that promoted Astroworld Festival.