Dallas

Youngest Astroworld Victim Remembered for ‘Joy in His Eyes'

Ezra Blount, 9, was the 10th and the youngest person killed as a result of the crowd surge incident at a Houston music festival earlier this month

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Funeral services were held in Dallas on Tuesday morning for 9-year-old Ezra Blount, who was the youngest person killed in the Astroworld Festival tragedy.

Blount, who is from Tyler, was remembered in a public service at the Inspiring Body of Christ Church on Westmoreland Road in southern Dallas.

Blount was attending the Houston music festival on Friday, Nov. 5 with his father, Treston Blount.

Funeral services will be held in Dallas on Tuesday morning for 9-year-old Ezra Blount, who was the youngest person killed in the Astroworld Festival tragedy.

Treston Blount wrote in a post on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover medical expenses that his son, Ezra, was on his shoulders as they waited for Drake to perform when the crowd began to push.

"I began to be crushed until I couldn't breathe. I passed out and I woke up my son was gone," Treston Blount wrote.

Ezra Blount was hospitalized in a medically-induced coma for more than a week before succumbing to the injuries on Nov. 14, making him the 10th and the youngest person to die in the incident.

"It's gut-wrenching. It’s unimaginable," Ezra's great aunt Gwen Thomas said before she entered the funeral service.

Tuesday, dozens of family, friends and classmates remembered him as a fun-loving boy with an affinity for Fortnite and Spiderman.

His funeral focused on the joy he brought to many lives and on healing from the incomprehensible loss.

"We’re not prepared. We’re not prepared to let him go," Thomas said.

The Blount family is among many who have filed lawsuits in the wake of the tragedy that saw hundreds of people hurt during a surge in the crowd of people who were pressing toward the stage in Houston.

Two people who attended Astroworld in Houston on Friday said they'll never forget the feeling of being stuck in the crowd surge that led to eight deaths.

The festival was founded and headlined by Houston-based rapper Travis Scott.

Scott said he's cooperating with investigators and will pay for funeral expenses for the victims.

"He was the best kid. He was a loving child and for Travis Scott to be one of his favorite artists, you know, we ask that Travis do the right thing and for Astroworld to do the right thing," Thomas said.

Ezra Blount was laid to rest at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Dallas.

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