Security Guard Wasn't Victim of 'Needle-Spiking' at Astroworld, Was Struck in Head: Police

Authorities said Wednesday a security guard's recollection of the events at last week's deadly Astroworld Festival that put him in need of medical treatment were "not consistent" with earlier reports that he may have been needle spiked.

Addressing reporters during a Wednesday press conference, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said authorities have spoken with the unnamed security guard in the days after the festival, which ended a day early after a crowd surge the evening of November 5 left eight attendees dead and others injured. Finner said Wednesday two people were still in the hospital in critical condition.

Finner told reporters on November 6 that medical officials attending to people who were injured at the festival said the security guard "was reaching over to restrain or grab a citizen, and he felt a prick in his neck."

"When we was examined—he went unconscious—they administered Narcan," Finner said at that earlier press conference, referring to the medicine that can quickly reverse a drug overdose. "He was revived, and the medical staff did notice a prick that was similar to a prick that you would get if somebody's trying to inject."

But on Wednesday, Finner said authorities' conversations with that security guard did not match the initial details shared by medical officials.

"We did locate that security guard. His story's not consistent with that," Finner said. "He says he was struck in his head, he went unconscious, he woke up in the security tent. He says that no one injected drugs in him, so we want to clear that part up."

Needle spiking is an act that involves one individual injecting another with a substance without their knowledge. It has been compared with drink spiking, in which an individual adds a substance to another individual's drink. According to The Independent, people in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have reported multiple incidents of alleged needle spiking in recent weeks.

The loss of life at this year's Astroworld Festival has led some officials to call for an independent investigation into the event, including Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who said in a November 6 tweet she wanted "an objective and independent investigation into what happened."

When asked about the requests for an independent investigation on Wednesday, Finner said he wasn't against doing so if necessary but that "I'm really confident in who we are here at HPD, and I think we can do our own investigation."

"We're only a few days into this," he added.

"I'm not against the independent investigation when it's warranted," he added when pressed on the issue while answering reporters' questions. "It's not warranted right now."