In the 2016 fire that killed 36 at the Ghost Ship music venue in Oakland, Derick Almena, the venue’s operator, pleaded guilty to 36 charges of manslaughter. Craig Peters, an attorney at Altair Law in San Francisco who represented the family of the late musician Cash Askew in the Ghost Ship venue fire, said “there certainly is a possibility” of similar charges related to Astroworld.
“It’s hard to know what was known and planned for, but this artist seems to have a history with fomenting an aggressive crowd,” Peters said. “I certainly think there’s a possibility he could find himself under the microscope from a criminal perspective.”