Travis Scott Had Long History Of Inciting Chaos At Concerts Before Houston Stampede, Including 2015 Incident At Lollapalooza

CHICAGO (CBS) — Friends of Jake Jurinek – one of two Naperville men killed in the stampede at the Astroworld Festival in Houston last week – gathered in downstate Carbondale Monday night.

Jurinek, 21, was a junior at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Friends said he had a passion for art and music. Also among the eight killed in the stampede was Franco Patino, 21, a student at the University of Dayton and a friend of Jurinek’s since childhood.

READ MORE: Chicago Carjacking Suspects Arrested In Oak Lawn After Being Pursued 33 Miles From Gary

An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance for the concert Friday night. The crowd began to push and move towards the stage around 9 p.m. when rapper Travis Scott was performing.

It happens that Scott has a long history with crowd control and violence. As CBS 2’s Marie Saavedra reported Monday night, that history includes a stop at Grant Park for Lollapalooza six years ago that ended with the rapper in handcuffs.

It is part of a pattern that’s proved incredibly dangerous, and now deadly.

Travis Scott – who was born Jacques Webster and back then stylized his name as “Travi$” – was barely into his set at Lollapalooza in 2015 when he urged the crowd to jump the barricades into the security pit.

And they did.

The rapper was arrested for disorderly conduct, and later pleaded guilty. But no fans were hurt that night – unlike Friday night in Houston.

“I still don’t think it’s real, you know?” said Danny Dally. “I still think it’s like, ‘OK, we made a mistake.’”

Dally was still in shock Monday over the loss of his friends Patino and Jurinek.

READ MORE: Chicago Weather: Highs About 10 Degrees Cooler Tuesday

(Supplied to CBS 2)

“They weren’t, you know, like small individuals – you know? They worked out all the time. They went to the gym,” Dally said. “You know, like, I don’t get how someone could be – two of them together could be knocked over so easily.”

In a video apology, Scott seemed surprised too.

“I could never imagine anything like this just happening,” Scott said in part on the Instagram video apology.

But his track record tells a different story, which continued long after the Lollapalooza incident in 2015.

In April 2017, Scott encouraged a fan at a show at Terminal 5 in New York City to jump from a balcony into the crowd. A month later, he was arrested after a show in Arkansas suspicion of inciting a riot.

Even Scott’s 2019 Nexflix Documentary showed the perils of attending his shows.

But for the first time Friday, fans didn’t come home from one of his concerts. And so begins the battle over who is to blame.

Scott is already facing a handful of lawsuits from fans who were hurt in Houston, saying he didn’t do enough to prevent the chaos.

MORE NEWS: North Suburban Woman Pens Letter Expressing Gratitude And Raising Awareness About PLS — Which Has Robbed Her Of Her Voice, But Not Her Passion

Scott is vowing to cover funeral expenses for the eight people killed, including the two 21-year-olds from Naperville.