(KMOX/AP) -- One of the eight people killed in the stampede at the Astroworld music festival in Houston on Friday was a junior at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Jacob Jurinek, of Naperville, was “pursuing his passion for art and media,” his family said in a statement Sunday. He was just a over two weeks short of his 21st birthday.
In a statement, the school's chancellor, Austin A. Lane, said “we are brokenhearted to lose a member of the Saluki family, Jacob Jurinek, and we extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends. Jacob was a creative, intelligent young man, with a promising career in journalism and advertising. As we mourn this loss in our community, we will keep Jacob’s family and friends in our thoughts.”
Investigators are using videos, witness interviews and a review of concert procedures to determine how eight people were killed during the performance by rapper Travis Scott. The tragedy unfolded when the crowd rushed the stage, squeezing people so tightly they couldn’t breathe.
Jurinek was the best friend and former high school football teammate of 21-year-old Franco Patino, a Naperville native and a senior at the University of Dayton, CBS 2 reported. Patino was also killed in the crush of people on Friday night.
He will be missed by his father, Ron Jurinek, with whom Jake became especially close after Jake’s mother died in 2011.
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“In the decade since, Jake and Ron were inseparable – attending White Sox and Blackhawks games, sharing their love of professional wrestling, and spending weekends with extended family and friends at Jake’s favorite place, the family cottage in Southwestern Michigan,” the family’s statement said.
“We are all devastated and are left with a huge hole in our lives,” his father, Ron Jurinek, added in an emailed statement.
The Southern Illinoisan newspaper reported Jurinek was studying journalism and had designed posters and social media banners for athletics at SIU.
The school is offering counseling and psychological services to students who may be traumatized by the incident and Jurinek’s death.
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