Overview
- Pershing County officials and the Washoe County medical examiner confirmed three festival-linked deaths during the event’s final days, including two found inside Black Rock City and a third who died while being transported to a Reno hospital.
- A man in his mid-50s, identified as Sampson Tshombe, was found unresponsive on a festival street and pronounced dead at Rampart, the on-site medical center, after emergency personnel performed CPR.
- Craigh Mann, 60, was discovered dead in a trailer by campmates on Sept. 5 and was taken to the medical examiner for an autopsy because no immediate cause could be determined.
- The Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner identified the third victim as 51-year-old Armando Ramirez of Truckee, Calif., and officials say there are no apparent signs of foul play in any of the three cases.
- Organizers kept round-the-clock peer and crisis support available on the playa while severe weather, mud-related gate and airport closures, and multiple arrests strained logistics and focused renewed scrutiny on festival medical capacity and safety procedures, coming after last year’s unresolved homicide.