Our Tim Stegall was there. We asked for his account:
Wednesday, Mar. 12, 2014 – Los Angeles punk veterans X showcased at the Mohawk's outdoor stage. I covered it from the eastern balcony, with a clear view of the stage and the street outside the wall shielding the concert area. A largish crowd milled outside, hoping to enter. Understandable – X were good.
Maybe five songs in and 16 bars into “Johnny Hit and Run Pauline” (of all tunes), a Honda Civic crashed through the barrier on the block's west, doing maybe 70 or 80 mph, two police vehicles in pursuit. Bodies flew left and right, or were mowed over, first responders arriving maybe two minutes later. The rest of the set – and SXSW – was spent in a state of shock I (and so many others) would not recover from, with a split-screen Fellini horror film equivalent before me: X rocking on one side, preserved in amber from The Decline of Western Civilization, unaware of the carnage outside the wall, unintentionally providing a gruesome, ironic soundtrack: “Nausea bloody red eyes go to/Nausea bloody red eyes go to sleep ….”
Twenty-four people were hit, four killed. Killeen's Rashad Owens, 21, faces one count capital murder, four counts felony murder, and 24 counts aggravated assault. These cold statistics don't make the SXSW crash 2014's standout news story, however. It's simply impossible avoiding emotions. This vehicular assault, the first such crowd tragedy in SXSW history, involved friends and neighbors, raising questions about the growth of Austin's biggest annual event and its security: Was a traffic stop so close to the festival necessary? Do we need sturdier crash barriers? No, this story is not the “best” news story of the year. It's the most important.
