Car Plows Into SXSW Crowd, Killing 2

23 injured; driver to be charged with capital murder
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 13, 2014 3:25 AM CDT
Updated Mar 13, 2014 4:28 AM CDT
2 Killed, 23 Hurt as Car Plows Into SXSW Festival Crowd
A patient is carried away after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas.   (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner)

At least two people were killed and 23 injured—five of them critically—when a car sped into a crowd in downtown Austin just after midnight, plowing through barricades set up for the South by Southwest music festival. The incident left victims scattered along a city block where several clubs are located, reports the AP. Witnesses say they saw the car speeding down the street with a police car in pursuit. The driver gunned the engine "and I was thrown up in the sky," a victim with an injured leg tells the Austin American-Statesman. Police say the suspect, who sped off after being stopped on suspicion of DUI, is in custody and will be charged with two counts of capital murder, KXAN reports. (More South by Southwest Interactive Festival stories.)

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