CAPITAL MURDER CHARGES FILED IN SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST HORROR
Twenty-one year old Rashad Owens was formally charged with one count of capital murder in the downtown Austin crash that left two dead and more than 20 people injured.
Owens remains in the Travis County jail under a $3 million bond and more charges are pending.
Owens’ arrest affidavit says an Austin Police officer attempted to stop Owens while he was driving along an Interstate 35 access road just past midnight Thursday after he tried to turn left out of the wrong lane, nearly hitting the officer’s vehicle.
The affidavit goes on to say Owens continued driving on the frontage road, turning the wrong way onto 9th Street which is a one way street. The officer then noticed Owens was headed in the wrong direction of the South By Southwest Festival event at Red River and 11th. A late night concert was just letting out and thousands were in the street.
The affidavit says that witnesses saw Owens drive through the barrier and even speeding up as he ran over one pedestrian as he ran over pedestrians on the closed street.
Owens then drove through the barricades at the intersection of 11th and Red River, , hitting a motorcycle with a rider and a passenger, and a bicyclist with one rider and at taxi with a driver inside.
Twenty-seven year old Jamie West of Austin was on the motorcycle and killed in the collision. Steven Craehmer, of the Netherlands was riding his bicycle was killed at the scene,.
The affidavit says the car finally stopped in a parking lot on the northwest corner of 11th and Red River., Owens then fled the vehicle on foot. The officer who initiated the stop was able to catch up to Owens on foot and used his Tazer to stop him. Owens was described as being ‘combative.’
Owens then admitted to the officers that he saw the police lights in his rearview mirror and got scared because he has warrants and didn’t want to go to jail for five years. A blood test showed Owens with a .114 blood alcohol level, well over the legal limit of .08.