Five people lost their lives at a 2012 Steve Aoki event, sparking a court case against Miguel Ángel Flores, the Spanish promoter behind the show, and thirteen others involved with the night.
Flores has now been sentenced to four in prison, while seven of the others implicated also received smaller sentences upon the convictions for their role in the tragedy. Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that they were found guilty of gross negligence, manslaughter as well as twenty-nine counts of of criminal injury. As the head promoter of the Thriller Music Park event, Flores received the maximum penalty while six of the original thirteen being investigated, who included medics, security staff and Madrid’s former chief of police, were cleared of any wrongdoing.
A Madrid court judge declared that the venue for the event, the Madrid Arena, was oversold by roughly 6,000 tickets and that the proper security and safety precautions were not taken to handle such large attendance. Sadly five girls — Cristina Arce, Katia Esteban, Rocío Oña, María Teresa Alonso and Belén Langdom — all passed away as a result of crowd rush injuries. It took emergency personnel three hours to clear the venue following a stampede sprked by the unexpected lighting of a flare. Several of the arena’s fire exits were closed shut, crushing hundreds from the crowd trying to leave.
As part of Flores’ conviction he is barred from any activity related to event hosting or organization. However, recent news stories have confirmed that Flores has had plans to reopen Macumba in October, the Madrid club he had to shut down following the five deaths at the Madrid Arena.
H/T: RA
