Two dead and 23 injured after car drives into SXSW crowd

by Nicole Villeneuve

March 13, 2014

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Two people were killed and 23 more injured, some critically, after an allegedly drunk driver crashed into a crowd in an attempt to evade police in Austin, TX last night.

The crash happened in the thick of Wednesday night’s SXSW activity outside the Mohawk venue at 9th and Red River at about 12:30 a.m. Reports say the driver had earlier sped away from a breathalyzer checkpoint and turned the wrong way on a one-way street through barricades that had been set up for the festival, plowing into the crowds. The driver continued and hit a man and woman on a moped before crashing into a parked vehicle, leaving his car, and attempting to run. He was tased by the arresting officer.

The man and woman who had been riding the moped were pronounced dead on the scene.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a press conference that the driver would be charged with two counts of capital murder (meaning, if charged, it could potentially result in the death penalty) and 23 counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle.

The rest of last night’s House of Vans lineup at Mohawk was immediately cancelled and, as per a SXSW statement, they “will be making schedule and venue changes for programming in the surrounding area of last night’s events. All other programming will continue as previously scheduled.”

 

Tags: Music, News, SXSW, sxsw 2014

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