CINCINNATI — The recent Astroworld tragedy that left 10 people dead during a rap concert in Texas is bringing attention to what happened here in Ohio.
Eleven people died trying to get into a concert in Cincinnati 42 years ago this month.
The doors in front of the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati are a sad reminder to Mike Ladd about what still haunts him 42 years later.
“I was actually in back of her with my arms around her” said concert tragedy survivor Mike about his then-wife Teva Rae Ladd.
The Ladds were in a crowd of about 18,000 people, waiting to get into the arena that was formerly the Riverfront Coliseum.
The rock band “The Who” was supposed to play, but he said a soundcheck made some think they were missing the concert and that's when chaos broke out.
“It just seemed like a wall of people come over us and that was it, that was the last time I seen her,” said Mike.
They were swallowed up in a crowd trying to push their way in, and his wife became one of 11 people trampled to death.
“I was fighting for my life for about 15-20 minutes. Finally got up to my feet, I was a mess, cut up and bruised, come up and was looking for her, next thing I know here comes a stretcher out with her on it,” said Mike.
“After that, it was like a blur, but I remember telling the police officer I had to home to my family, I got two kids,” he said.
One of their kids, Kasey Ladd, was just 2 years old when it happened.
“The heartache of not being able to know her or hear her say she loves me, or any of that, none of that, just never goes away,” said Kasey.
But he said when the city put up a memorial, it helped him and his dad talk more about what happened that day.
But sometimes it isn’t just the building or memorial. They said it's the recent Astroworld tragedy in Texas where 10 people died during a concert that brings it all back. They said it was the same problem there that could’ve been avoided.
“Just senseless loss of life when it could’ve been easily avoided by saying ‘hey, festival seating don’t work," said Mike. "You can not take a high-energized crowd and try to shove them all through an opening that big,and expect them to come out on the other side,” he said.
He said he hopes people learn from the past as they come back every December and light a candle to remember what happened all those years ago.
