Second Fatality Confirmed Following Friday’s Mad Decent Block Party

Following the Mad Decent Block Party festivities that took place in Columbia, Maryland,this past Friday, the death of an unnamed 17 year old male, from Woodbridge, VA, was confirmed after being taken to the hospital with 19 other attendees. This marks the second death of the event, following that of a 20 year old male, Tyler Fox Viscardi. Although both deaths and most of the hospitalizations are presumed drug-related, toxicology reports are yet to be official.

In the wake of the tragedy, Mad Decent issued a statement via their website, on Saturday morning, “We were shocked and saddened when we heard the news from yesterday’s event at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland. Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by this.”

Seth Hurwitz, the Mad Decent Block Party promoter, had this to say about the tragic event:

“Our hearts go out to the family as they face the unimaginable,” he said. “As a parent, it makes me horribly sad beyond words to think of a tragedy like this. We can spend every minute of the day making perfect sense to our children regarding the obvious perils of drugs, but sometimes it is impossible to convince them that this is relevant to their world.”

“This particular type of incident is not the problem of those who should have known better…it’s the problem of those too young to believe it could happen to them,” he continued. “Sadly we find ourselves in the classic position of trying to tell kids not to do something they think is fun.”

Unfortunately, the stark reality of the situation is that drug-use at these events cannot be completely eradicated, no matter the stringent precautions or security. We can only hope that attendees will be responsible and exercise good judgement, so that these incidents do not happen again. The Mad Decent Block Party 2014 campaign will blaze onward. Saturday’s event in Norfolk, VA went as planned.

H/T: Resident Advisor