IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Fourth Person Dies From SXSW Festival Car Crash

DeAndre Tatum, 18, died from injuries he sustained in the March 13 collision in which two dozen people in line for a concert were mowed down.
Image:
A cross and flowers are outside The Mohawk in Austin, Texas, on Saturday March 15, 2014, as a memorial to the people who died in the hit-and-run tragedy at SXSW.Jay Janner / AP

A teenager struck by a suspected drunken driver who plowed into a crowd near the South by Southwest festival in Austin has died, bringing the death toll from the crash to four, police said Thursday.

DeAndre Tatum, 18, died from injuries he sustained in the March 13 collision in which about two dozen people were mowed down on a street closed to vehicles, Austin Police said. He had been listed in critical condition.

Two people hit by the driver — Jamie West, 27, and Steven Craenmehr, 35 — died the day of the crash. A third person, Sandy Le, 26, died from her injuries on March 17.

Tatum's girlfriend, Curtisha Davis, 19, suffered critical injuries stemming from the crash — including broken bones and a neck injury. She was released from the hospital March 18, according to NBC affiliate KXAN.

Rashad Charjuan Owens, 21, from Killeen, Texas, has already been charged with one count of capital murder and is being held on $3 million bond, the Austin Police Department said on its website. More charges are likely.

Owens had been asked to pull over at a sobriety checkpoint and instead sped away from a police car. He smashed through a police barricade and then plowed down people — some of them lined up outside the Mohawk nightclub, a popular downtown venue — over a span of city blocks.

Owens then tried to flee on foot but was subdued by an officer with the stun gun.

He had a blood alcohol level of .114, well over the legal limit of .08, breath test results showed.

— Daniel Arkin