What a tragedy. Once the guy took off, the cops had no choice but to follow him:

Two people died and 23 others were injured early Thursday morning after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival in Austin and plowed into a crowd of pedestrians.

The suspect will be charged with two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggregated assault, senior police officer Jermaine Kilgore told the Washington Post.

Kilgore said the suspect drove through temporary barricades set up for the festival at 9th and Red River streets after a police officer attempted to make a traffic stop on the vehicle. The suspect then fled, going the wrong way on 9th Street, a one-way street, and drove into the crowd, striking several pedestrians and colliding with a moped and a taxi.

After the suspect came to a stop, he attempted to flee on foot. He was eventually tased and taken into custody, Kilgore said.

Police Lt. Brian Moon said the two victims were confirmed dead at the scene, along a block where several clubs are located. The others were taken to various hospitals. The incident occurred about 12:30 a.m. central time.

Yvette Ruiz, 27, of Austin, told the Washington Post she was attending the festival when she and her boyfriend saw the car break through the barricade and continue north, plowing through “clusters” of festival-goers.

“I could hear the rev of the engine and people screaming,” she said. “I turned around to see people falling off the hood of the car. … There was a lot of blood everywhere. People on the street. People on the sidewalk. It was barricaded. It was supposed to be safe.”

Kilgore later said the police officer pursuing the car suspected the driver might be driving intoxicated.