SXSW subject assertion after particular person killed in hit and run
SXSW have issued an announcement, following information {that a} hit and run left one lifeless and one other injured in downtown Austin.
The incident happened within the Texas metropolis earlier this morning (Tuesday, March 12). In line with native police (through Fox 7 Austin), it was simply after 1am when two pedestrians have been strolling on the intersection of seventh Avenue and Purple River once they have been hit by a car.
A kind of hit died on the scene, whereas the opposite at the moment stays in hospital with essential, life-threatening accidents. The realm the place the crime happened remained closed for hours however was reopened by police later within the morning.
Now, South By Southwest pageant, which is held in Austin, have shared an official assertion in mild of the incident, and shared their sympathies with the victims.
“We’re deeply saddened to be taught of the passing of a person in downtown Austin following an auto-pedestrian accident shortly after 1:00am this morning,” learn the put up on X/Twitter. “Our ideas are with all affected by this tragic incident.”
This can be a growing state of affairs and extra updates might turn out to be out there. pic.twitter.com/JkgUpmO20O
— SXSW (@sxsw) March 12, 2024
The information of the incident in Austin this morning comes after an analogous incident happened in the course of the pageant again in 2014.
A person named as Rashad Owens was arrested after killing 4 and injuring greater than 20 others on March 13, 2014. He was aged 23 on the time and drove via a closed road on which there have been a number of venues participating within the music pageant. Police said that he was intoxicated on the time of his arrest.
Steven Craenmehr, 35, from Amsterdam, native girl Jamie Ranae West, 27, plus Deandre Tatum, 18 and Sandy Le, 27, died within the crash.
Owens was an aspiring rapper who was scheduled to play a late-night present at Membership 1808 as a part of the SXSW pageant. He later pleaded not responsible to a cost of homicide, however was sentenced to life in jail with out parole after a jury unanimously agreed that he “deliberately or knowingly brought on the loss of life of two or extra folks.”
The tragic incident at this 12 months’s version of SXSW additionally comes following information that numerous artists would not be performing on the occasion in solidarity with Palestine.
Lambrini Ladies, Scowl, Gel, Okay Shalom and Squirrelflower have been among the many first to drag out of performing on the pageant as a result of occasion’s affiliation with the US military and weapons firms amid the Israel-Gaza battle.
Yesterday (March 11), it was revealed that Kneecap and Sprints had joined them, and introduced their withdrawal from the 2024 version.
Belfast hip-hop trio Kneecap shared in an announcement that their resolution to not carry out was made “in solidarity with the folks of Palestine”. In addition they highlighted the “unacceptable deep hyperlinks” the pageant needed to the US military – which is a “super sponsor” of the event – and defence contractor RTX Company, which has equipped weapons to Israel.
The group added that the US navy and different platformed weapons firms who’re “at this very second are enabling a genocide and famine towards a trapped inhabitants”.
Kneecap additionally cited the platforming of Collins Aerospace and BAE Techniques as a motive for his or her boycott, including that collectively with RTX, the businesses have been promoting the weapons which have “murdered 31,000 Palestinians, over 21,000 of them girls and kids”.
Scowl and Gel pulled out earlier than that, with the previous writing: “We refuse to be complicit within the face of genocide in Palestine. We refuse to take part within the battle machine,” whereas Lambrini Ladies’ shared their very own assertion, stating that they “can’t affiliate ourselves in any way” with the occasion.
The annual music, tradition and humanities showcase takes place in Austin, Texas from March 12-14.