Sheila E. Says Carson Jazz Festival Kept Playing While Concertgoer's Body Lay in the Crowd

A woman died at the Carson Jazz Festival in Southern California this past Saturday during a brutal heat wave, and the show reportedly went on for roughly half an hour after she was pronounced dead with her body still in the crowd.

Shari Sanders, a resident of Altadena, was found unconscious and unresponsive in the VIP section of Anderson Memorial Park, according to the LA Times. She had been saving seats for her family, according to Grammy-winning musician Sheila E., who headlined the festival.

Dr. Dionne Leslie, a festival attendee, performed CPR on Sanders for about 20 minutes before paramedics arrived, according to KTLA reporting cited by both the LA Times and Yahoo News. "[I was] just trying to breathe air into that woman and for her to look up in that moment, I just thought that she was going to make it," Leslie told KTLA.

Sanders did not survive. Her family told KTLA her death appears to be heat-related and that she had no prior medical history. The official cause of death is still under investigation, according to the LA Times, and neither the City of Carson nor the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Carson station responded to requests for comment from the outlet.

Sheila E. says she had no idea the body was still there

Sheila E., the 68-year-old percussionist known as the "Queen of Percussion," posted an emotional video on Instagram after the festival laying out what she says happened. She said she and her band arrived around 7:30 a.m. and saw people already lined up in chairs waiting to get in, with organizers opening the gates 30 minutes early.

She described watching emergency crews move through the crowd "like crazy" from her dressing room window, assuming it was heat-related dehydration given temperatures that AccuWeather forecast at 102 degrees that day. Her sound check got pushed back. Production, she said, was running behind.

"The lady, Shari Sanders, was saving seats... and I guess someone saw her kind of slumped over a little bit," Sheila E. said, according to Fox News. She said a bystander found Sanders unresponsive, and that paramedics didn't arrive for roughly 20 minutes after that.

Sheila E. said she was told Sanders had died, dedicated her first song to her, and held a moment of silence before continuing her set. What she says she didn't know: Sanders' body was still at the park, covered, when she walked on stage. The body wasn't removed until around 5 p.m., about a half hour after Sheila E. finished performing, according to Yahoo News.

"I would have never, never gotten onstage if I would have known that her body was still sitting there with her family surrounding her," she said, per the LA Times. "Production, whoever, the city, the mayor was there. All of you guys should have stopped the festival. I'm sorry. You should have stopped the festival."

She also criticized the city over water access, saying she was told there was only one water station working the entire event. "There was just not enough water for everyone," she said. "Carson, you guys have to do better. This was horrible. Horrible. And I'm so sorry that I played because I would not have gotten onstage knowing that she was still there."

What's unproven, and what isn't

Sanders' family's belief that her death was heat-related is their account, not a coroner's finding. The cause of death remains under investigation, and no agency has publicly confirmed heat as the official cause. A festival with EMS on-site and a doctor performing CPR within minutes does not necessarily indicate indifference, and organizers may argue their medical response moved as fast as circumstances allowed.

But the decision to let the show continue for roughly 30 more minutes with a body still in the crowd, and the claim of a single water station serving a festival in triple-digit heat, are the two specific allegations driving the backlash. Neither has been addressed publicly by the City of Carson or the Sheriff's Carson station, which Carson has run for 40 years, according to Sheila E.'s remarks to Fox News.

No lawsuit, citation, or investigation into the festival's safety protocols has been announced as of this writing. Whether Carson changes its water-station setup or its emergency procedures before next year's festival remains an open question the city has not yet answered.