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Thursday, March 13, 2014

2 Dead, 23 Injured in Drunk Driver Crash at SXSW

Update #3  Full list of those injured released.  Seveal 18 or19, most in 20s.... Driver was set to perform at a club last night before the crash.  His stage name was: KillAllBeatz.  At age 21, he was reportedly the father of six children.  The car may, or may not, have been stolen. 

Update #2: Interview with grandmother of driver.  And it seems he has police record, including DUI history.  Wanted to be record producer.... Latest police briefing.


Update #1: Newspaper confirms ID of driver.  He's 21 and from Killeen... One of the dead is Dutch... Two of those injured with serious head injuries may not survive.   Only a few others remain hospitalized.   Police have corrected earlier report--only one on the moped was killed.  The other fatality was a man on a bicycle.

Earlier: Tragic news here.  I will update.   Home page of Austin paper.   Police chief's briefing.  Did police recklessly chase in this crowded area?  Man and woman on a moped dead, 5 still critical.  Suspect fled on foot, tased, and captured.  Will be charged with two counts of capital murder and face death penalty.  Police chief asks witnesses to not just post stuff on social media but contact police with videos, photos, eyewitness accounts.  Audio of police dispatches during chase.   “Austin definitely has a drunk-driving problem,” Lt. Derek Galloway, the head of the DWI Unit for the APD’s Highway Enforcement Command, told the Austin Monthly last year. “Your biggest issues are in the downtown area.”

Police chief  Art Acevedo:  “We do these events very well but you cannot stop a person who rather than face drunk driving charges decides to speed at a high rate of speed, go around a uniformed officer forcing him to run out of the way, then at a high rate of speed show total disregard for the sanctity of human life.”   Note: I was invited to be on a panel but could not attend.

Video of scene just after it happened (naturally music by X still going on at club there):

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the police were chasing a drunk driver in a crowded area? When does this end?