Fortnite players condemned for mocking death of 9-year-old Astroworld victim

Fortnite Battle Royale players have been condemned after comments mocking the death of the youngest victim killed at the Astroworld festival went viral on TikTok. 

Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival event in Houston, Texas ended in tragedy on November 5, as a crowd surge crushed and killed 10 people.

Following the event, an investigation was triggered into the safety procedures of security working on-site and Scott himself is reportedly being sued for over $750 million.

One of those was a nine-year-old boy called Ezra Blount, who passed away at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, a family lawyer confirmed on November 15. The child was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering serious injuries.

As people around the world mourned all 10 who paid the ultimate price during the event, insensitive comments have surfaced on social media with some people making Fortnite-related jokes in relation to Ezra’s death.

Fortnite players mock Astroworld victim

In a TikTok clip posted by Vlone, which has surpassed over 6.2 million views at the time of writing, many remarks were made.

These included “bro became a skull trooper,” which is a skin in Fortnite featuring a skeleton face, as well as “Lil bro got Boogie Bombed.”

Another reads: “Bro got lost in the storm.”

Watch the TikTok video here if embed below doesn’t load.

@lll.llllll.ll…llllIt’s just messed up man, plain and simple messed up😕 ##sad ##rip ##travisscott ##kid ##fortnite ##mean ##joke ##fyp ##foryou♬ Can We Kiss Forever? – Kina

The TikTok users involved

The usernames behind each of these replies were montyyyy_y, uzisiins, and thizzin_83.

Just like so many other “troll” posts made on social media, each of the accounts do not have a clear name attached to them, allowing them to hide – at least publicly – behind somewhat anonymous profiles.

Thousands of comments, in reply to Vlone’s video, have criticized the reactions of those three users.

Travis Scott has close ties to Fortnite Battle Royale, having performed live in the game previously.

However, those are just examples of what is a larger pool of Fortnite troll replies.

Others said: “At least bro got top 9,” and “Bro forgot to pop a med kit.”

A number of TikTok users have moved to condemn the comments. One posted: “This is messed up.” Another said: “These comments are dark humor it’s kids trying to act cool by making jokes outta those who lost their lives.”

“This comment section isn’t it, for real. Bro was a kid,” a user replied. “These comments are evil.”

In April 2020, Travis Scott hosted his own Astronomical festival in Epic Games’ popular battle royale game, meaning the crossover of fans between the artist and video game developer is stronger than many others in the industry.

Since the Astroworld disaster, the game’s developers have removed Travis content in-game.

Whether the Epic Games team or Travis Scott himself will move to castigate those behind such comments remains to be seen.

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