AUSTIN, TX (RNN) – The South by Southwest festival will continue with daytime events after a suspected drunken driver killed two and inured 23 when he drove his car down a one-way street as people spilled out of concert venue just after midnight Thursday. The festival is still working out how the evening events will proceed.
The managing director of the event was visibly shaken at a Thursday morning news conference.
“As much as we would like to go home and spend time absorbing this shock of this horrific event, we feel our best use is to continue to operate today,” Roland Swenson told a crowd of media. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured and the families of the fatalities.”
Among the dead is a man from the Netherlands, who was on a bicycle. Also dead is a Texas woman who was riding on the back of a moped; the driver of the moped survived and is hospitalized.
Police said the suspect was trying to avoid a DUI checkpoint at about 12:30 a.m. CST on Thursday. He sped away from police and drove past barricades set up for the festival, drove the wrong way down a one-way street and plowed into pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles before fleeing on foot.
The officer manning the barricades leaped out of the way of the speeding car, according to police. He and the officer from the DUI checkpoint chased the suspect on foot before using a stun gun to subdue him and take him into custody.
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Article Courtesy of RNN and WOIO 19 Action News
Picture Courtesy of CNN, KXAN-TV Austin, TX, RNN and WOIO 19 Action News
