Associated Press
AUSTIN — A third person struck by a suspected drunken driver in Austin last week during the South By Southwest festival died Monday, police said.
Sandy Thuy Le, 26, died from the injuries she sustained when she was run over outside The Mohawk music club early Thursday, Austin police spokeswoman Veneza Bremner said. Police say the driver, Rashad Owens, was fleeing police when he crashed through a barricade and accelerated his car into a crowd in Austin’s Red River Entertainment District, killing two people at the scene and injuring 21 others.
Le had been listed in critical condition since she was struck. Dr. Christopher Ziebell, the emergency department director at the University Medical Center-Brackenridge, had said the two most critically injured patients suffered life-threatening head injuries.
Stuart Gates told The Clarion Ledger of Jackson, Miss., that Le — his sister-in-law — was surrounded by friends and family when she died Monday morning.
“She lived in this whimsy that almost made you jealous, she was a very carefree and nonchalant person with a definitely giving spirit, and she was very selfless,” Gates said. “She was full of life, she was quirky, and she was always someone you were looking forward to seeing.”
The victims who died Thursday were Steven Craenmehr, a 35-year-old Dutchman who was on a bicycle, and 27-year-old Jamie West of Austin, who was riding on a moped.
Five of the injured remained hospitalized Monday at University Medical Center, including one person in critical condition and two in serious condition, spokeswoman Kendra Clawson said.
Two other patients remained hospitalized elsewhere.
Owens, 21, has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. He’s accused of driving drunk and fleeing from police, then intentionally driving into the festivalgoers. The aspiring rapper from Killeen has been jailed on $3 million bond, and prosecutors are expected to seek additional charges against him from a grand jury.
The South by Southwest festival attracts more than 200,000 people to Austin for a technology conference, film festival and thousands of music performances.
