(NewsNation Now) — A security officer at the deadly Astroworld concert has told NewsNation that he was hired by text message and did not feel “prepared” to work the concert that night.
There was a 56-page event operations plan for Astroworld approved by Harris County, but Jackson Bush never saw one word of it.
“I don’t believe I was prepared,” Bush said. “I believe if we were all prepared the right way, that stuff would not have happened the way it did. Honestly, even with the amount of people that passed and went unconscious … the amount of injuries could have been avoided.”
Eight people died and scores more were hurt during a Travis Scott concert when the crowd “surged.” A stampede-like push from the crowd crushed some people so tightly they became unable to breathe.
The plan accounted for scenarios including active shooters, bombs, terrorists and bad weather, but not a crowd surge.
“The key in properly dealing with this type of scenario is proper management of the crowd from the minute the doors open,” the plan reads. “Crowd management techniques will be employed to identify potentially dangerous crowd behavior in its early stages in an effort to prevent a civil disturbance/riot.”
More than 50,000 people attended the event at NRG Stadium in Houston. The FBI has now opened a criminal investigation.
Bush said he and his uncle just showed up for the job with no background checks. The only security work he has done is when he was hired to sit outside a bank. He even said he had never been to a concert before, and ended up having to try saving people’s lives.
Bush said he was told security personnel would be paid $17 per hour through Cash App, but he still has not gotten any money. He said he is traumatized by what he saw.
His uncle’s hand was broken during the stampede.
Requests for comment from Live Nation and the security company were not returned.