Driver faces capital murder charges in deadly crash at Austin's SXSW

[Karee 4,191]

AUSTIN — A suspected drunken driver being pursued by police rammed through a crowd of South By Southwest festival-goers early Thursday in downtown Austin, killing two people and injuring 23, five of them critically.

One man from the Netherlands was struck and killed while riding his bicycle, and an Austin woman riding a moped also died at the scene, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said. The male driver of the moped was hospitalized in good condition.

The chief said the motorist plowed into people gathered in front of an emptying nightclub around 12:30 a.m. He eventually crashed and tried to make a getaway on foot. A police officer shocked him with a stun gun and took him into custody, Acevedo said at a news conference.

"This is an individual who showed no regard for the human beings he plowed through," the chief said.

The driver has been identified as Rashad Charjuan Owens, 21, of Killeen. An Austin police spokeswoman later confirmed the driver's identity and said Owens would face two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle.

Media reports suggested the Honda Civic he was driving had been stolen in Killeen.

Acevedo said the driver was drunk and may have been under the influence of drugs when the crash happened, according to the American-Statesman.

"This is an individual who committed an intentional act," the chief said. "When someone acts intentionally, it is very difficult to stop."

Owens was treated for minor injuries and turned over to police, said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, the emergency department director at the University Medical Center-Brackenridge.

Two people were in critical condition Thursday morning with life-threatening head injuries and three patients remain in serious condition, he added.

“The most critical patients I have a great deal of concern for,” Ziebell said. “We are going to do our best for them, but these are some of the worst injuries that we see, and not everybody with these kinds of injuries is going to survive.”

Officials credited first responders for clearing the scene of the most critically injured victims within 15 minutes. Austin Fire Department Chief of Staff Harry Evans said 24 firefighters were at the scene commanding events. All the injured were "off the street within 47 minutes," Evans said.

Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell said it was the first time in 27 years there had been an incident of this kind at South By Southwest.

"It is truly a tragic event," Leffingwell said.

Two teens from Fort Worth's Trimble Technical High School were reportedly among the eight people who remain hospitalized.

The Dutch victim's employer, Massive Music, later identified him on its website as 35-year-old Steven Craenmehr.

"During the 8 years that Steven worked for MassiveMusic, we got to know him as an unstoppable force, full of life, love and laughter," according to a statement on the music production company's Facebook page.

The female victim has been identified as Jamie Ranae West, 27, of Austin. West was on a moped that was struck by the car. Her husband, Evan West, was among those hospitalized.

Roland Swenson, managing director of the music festival, acknowledged that everyone would like to "just go home," after such a horrific event, but "to avoid confusion we plan to carry on with our scheduled daytime events."

The annual music, film and interactive conference draws tens of thousands to Austin each year, and the toll could have been much higher. The street had been packed with revelers just minutes earlier, but officials had cleared the area to create a fire lane.

“We had a large crowd,” Acevedo said at a 2:30 a.m. news conference. “I just thank God that a lot of the folks had already been pushed on the sidewalk or this could have been a lot worse.”

Acevedo asked witnesses and those who may have taken video to contact police rather than post it on the Internet. He did not release the names of the victims.

Austin police shut off traffic to about a square mile of downtown for five days during the festival, turning normally busy roads into a large pedestrian mall to help festival-goers reach dozens of music venues.

The driver rammed through barricades set up on Red River Street on the northeast edge of the entertainment district between an apartment building and The Mohawk nightclub, where multiple acts were to perform Wednesday night. The bands X and TEEN had just wrapped up, and rapper Tyler the Creator was scheduled to perform at 1 a.m.

Austin resident Kirk Visser, 47, lives across the street from The Mohawk nightclub.

Visser was watching TV when he heard the crash, and said he thought the nightclub’s outdoor balcony had collapsed, so he stepped outside on his second-floor balcony.

“As soon as I stepped out, I knew I had heard metal on a body,” he said. “There were people everywhere running and screaming.”

Scott Jakota, a musician from Indiana in town to play SXSW, told the American-Statesman he was one of the first people hit outside The Mohawk. He said the driver “gunned” the car.

“I was thrown up in the sky,” Jakota said.

Overlooking the street, 28-year-old Ally Hulton from Los Angeles, was on a balcony of her friend’s apartment when she saw the car driving “at full speed” before hitting someone.

“About 10 bodies went flying,” Hulton told the newspaper.

Police said the incident started when an officer on a drunken-driving patrol tried to stop the silver Civic sedan at a gas station a few blocks away. The car took off, weaving between parked cars then driving at high speed the wrong way down a one-way street.

Upon turning right on Red River Street, the Civic crashed through a barricade and narrowly missed a police officer. After hitting pedestrians in front of The Mohawk, the driver hit and killed two people, a female passenger on a moped and a bicyclist from the Netherlands, and hit a taxi cab before finally crashing.

A crime scene unit was still at the scene investigating the crash Thursday.

Acevedo said there were no plans to change safety protocols at the festival due to the accident.

“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.

Source:

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20140313-driver-faces-capital-murder-charges-in-deadly-crash-at-austin-s-sxsw.ece

[Karee 4,191]

Suspect in fatal SXSW crash was set to perform at East Austin club

5:15 p.m. update: Rashad Charjuan Owens had been in Austin to perform at an East Austin venue before police say he plowed through a crowd of South by Southwest festival-goers early Thursday morning downtown.

His brother, Lamar Wilson, told the American-Statesman that he last saw Owens on Wednesday evening before his show at Club 1808 near 12th and Chicon streets. Owens, whose stage name is KillingAllBeatz or K.A.B254, was the father of six young children, one of whom lives in Alaska, Wilson said.

His brother had been studying music production at an online university and had borrowed the car he was in from a friend named Andrew Bramwell, Wilson said

Christopher Haug, chief of media relations for Fort Hood, told the American-Statesman that Bramwell was a soldier at the Killeen military base and had reported his car stolen Thursday morning. Haug said Owens was not a Fort Hood solider.

Wilson said he was shocked by news of collision. “He’s a real good dude, he was in college and making music, and was trying to live regular,” the brother said.

Earlier: Rashad Charjuan Owens was raised in a Christian home in Killeen, enjoys producing music and had been trying to go forward in life to do good and provide for his toddler son, his grandmother told the American-Statesman on Thursday afternoon.

Reached at her home in South Carolina, his grandmother said she was grief-stricken and shocked to hear of the allegations against her grandson.

“I pray. I pray. I pray,” she said, declining to give her name as she did not yet know the full details of what happened overnight Thursday and was still processing the shock. “He is good. He is so good. …Whatever happened was out of his control, I am sure.”

Austin police have said that capital murder charges will be filed against the 21-year-old suspected drunken driver, who they say plowed through a crowd of South by Southwest festival-goers early Thursday morning in downtown Austin, killing at least two people.

Police Chief Art Acevedo said the man will face two charges of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault. Police officials confirmed the identity of the suspect to the American-Statesman just before noon Thursday.

A search of public records shows Owens had several misdemeanor arrests out of the Fairbanks Fourth District in Alaska, including being charged with minor under the influence and criminal trespass. In October 2011, he was charged with driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident and a petition to revoke probation, the Fairbanks records show.

He pleaded guilty only to the DUI misdemeanor charge, and prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor offense for fleeing, according to the filings.

He has an active warrant in that state for failure to appear, court filings show.

Owens was arrested by the Killeen school district Police Department in September 2010; he pleaded guilty to criminal trespass, a class B misdemeanor, according to a search of public records. He appears to have no criminal history in Travis County, according to court records.

His grandmother told the newspaper that she had learned news of the latest case upon the call from an American-Statesman reporter. She said Owens had been born in South Carolina but went to school in Killeen, where he was living with his family. According to public records, he was born in the West Texas town of Sonora.

The grandmother said she kept a close relationship with Owens, who often called home and had last visited relatives in South Carolina for his 21st birthday. He appeared to have been doing well and was loved by his family, she said.

“I just don’t know what happened,” she said, her voice mournful.

For full background on this developing story, read here.

Correction: Owens was set to perform at an East Austin club at 1 a.m. Thursday, according to his brother. The headline of this story has been corrected to reflect that.

Source:

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/grandmother-suspect-in-fatal-sxsw-crash-a-father-p/nfCLd/

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Okay, I'll just come out and say it: ban cars, ban booze and ban SXSW.

[Darnell 8,479]

SXSW is a huge money maker, each year.

Still, sryuup needs to be banned, IMO that's wot he had in him.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Drinking and driving is dangerous. In case anyone didn't know.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Drinking and driving is dangerous. In case anyone didn't know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcrYghEPxJ0

[Karee 4,191]

21 years old and he has 6 kids. Seems like alot for that age.

[Darnell 8,479]

not for that demographic, no.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Why would he be charged? All of those people were in his way and he feared for his life. Classic case of self defense. Hopefully justice is served and he walks. Drunks are people too.

[Novembro 1,763]

Hope he goes away for a long time.

[luckytxn 2,265]

Killeen? smh