CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Two of the eight people killed in the stampede at the Astroworld music festival in Houston on Friday were reportedly best friends from the Chicago area.
For the past year, Franco Patino and Jacob Jurinek had been looking forward to this weekend’s Astroworld festival in Houston.
Fellow graduates of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Patino and Jurinek had moved onto separate colleges and planned to celebrate Jurinek’s upcoming 21st birthday there. But the occasion quickly turned tragic Friday night, when the two promising students and six others were killed as the festival’s organizer Travis Scott performed. Hundreds more were hurt.
Related
Jacob Jurinek, of Naperville, was a student at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
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.”
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.
Jurinek was the best friend 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.
Related
In an interview Sunday, Patino’s father, Julio, said his son’s enthusiasm was palpable when he spoke to him for the last time earlier in the day.
“He answered the phone right away, and he was happy,” Julio Patino said. “[He said,] ‘I’m having so much fun with my friend.’”
“I said, ‘Franco I love you...Have fun, but be safe,” his father recalled. “He said, ‘No problem, Dad. I am fine. Everything’s gonna be OK.’”
Julio Patino declined to comment on the circumstances of his son’s death or speculate on who may be to blame, but he said one thing is clear: “Something went wrong.”
Investigators on Sunday were working to determine what went wrong during Scott’s performance. Preliminary reports indicate the tragedy happened when the crowd of thousands rushed to the stage, squeezing people so tightly they couldn’t breathe nor move their arms.
The youngest fatality was a 14-year-old high school student and the oldest was 27. Thirteen people remained hospitalized Sunday.
Some of Patino’s friends took to social media to specifically call out Scott, who previously held the annual festival in his native Houston two other years. The superstar rapper-producer’s shows are known for being chaotic, and he even pleaded guilty to reckless conduct charges tied to a 2015 incident at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago.
“My friend is gone FOREVER because of Astroworld,” one friend wrote. “The anger I have over this is insane. Travis Scott is going to have to do a hell of a lot more than post a notes-app apology.”
In a series of videos posted on Scott’s Instagram, he offered condolences and said he was working to connect with the victims’ families. “I’m honestly just devastated. I could never imagine anything like this just happening,” he said.
Rapper Roddy Ricch, who also performed Friday, has said he’s going to donate his earnings from Astroworld to the victims’ families.
(WBBM Newsradio and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this copy.)