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Police walk back claim that Astroworld security guard was injected with drugs

2021 Astroworld Festival police
Posted at 11:55 AM, Nov 11, 2021
and last updated 2021-11-11 13:33:42-05

On Wednesday, police in Houston walked back a claim made last weekend about a security guard at the deadly Astroworld music festival who they said had been pricked in the neck by a needle and potentially injected with drugs.

According to KTRK-TV in Houston, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said during a press conference Wednesday that those reports turned out to be erroneous.

Though the officer did lose consciousness, Finner said that a subsequent investigation found that the officer had been hit in the head.

"We did locate that security guard. His story is not consistent with that. He says he was struck in the head," Finner said Wednesday, according to KTRK. "He went unconscious. He woke up in the security tent. He says that no one injected drugs in him."

On Saturday, Finner told media outlets that a security guard working the festival was trying to restrain a concertgoer when he reported feeling a prick on his neck before losing consciousness.

According to BuzzFeed, Finner told reporters that medical staff found a prick mark on the security guard's neck and that he had been treated with Narcan — a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

Eight people were killed, and hundreds were injured during rapper Travis Scott's set at the Astroworld music festival. Video from the scene shows hundreds of concertgoers surging the stage as Scott performed.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that police were investigating whether pills laced with fentanyl had played a role in the deaths of some of the concertgoers.

The Houston Chronicle reports that autopsies for the eight people killed during the incident have been completed, though officials have not yet released their causes of death.