A drunk driver who was being followed by police from a nearby gas station crashed his car into a crowd of SXSW attendees outside The Mohawk venue on East 9th and Red River Street around 12:30am last night. The crash killed a man and a woman on a moped whose names have not been released, and injured 23. He tried to escape on foot after the crash, but was brought into custody by law enforcement after he was subdued with a stun gun.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told the Associated Press regarding further safety measures at SXSW, “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.”
