We have some really unfortunate news to report on today, concerning the on-going music conference/festival out in Austin, Texas, South By Southwest. Last night a suspected drunk driver drove through barricades set up for SXSW, and hit an astounding amount of people in the process, resulting in two deaths, twenty-three injured, and five in critical condition.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo says that the crash occurred at around 12:30 AM, as the driver attempted to flee police officers in pursuit. The two people that passed away were on a moped when the driver drove right into them. The driver also hit several pedestrians that were in front of a club.
As if that weren't enough, Acevedo also stated during a news conference that the driver crashed into a cab before getting out on foot and continuing his flight. A police officer managed to stun him with a stun gun, and take him into custody.
The name of the man has yet to be revealed, however he will face two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle.
This type of incident is not a frequent occurrence at SXSW, as an officer said, "This is extremely rare. In all the years of [hosting] South By Southwest, we've never seen anything like this."
The incident occurred while performances were going on, at one of the venues, Mohawk, Tyler, The Creator was slated to perform, however his show got cancelled. He tweeted, "Show Isnt Happening, Something Sad Happened. I'm Bummed."
"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," Acevedo said.
South By Southwest will continue until March 16th.
Our sympathies go out to all those affected in this horrendous incident.