The suspect in the SXSW crash which killed a man and a woman and left 23 injured has been identified as Rashad Charjuan Owens, a father and an aspiring rapper and producer under the stage name KillingAllBeatz or K.A.B., who was in Austin to perform at an East Austin venue.
As the American-Statesman reports, Owens’ brother, Lamar Wilson, said that he last saw Owens on Wednesday evening before his show at Club 1808 near 12th and Chicon streets. Owens was the father of six young children, one of whom currently resides in Alaska, Wilson told the Statesman.
He said that his brother had been studying music production through an online university and had borrowed the silver Toyota he was in on Thursday morning from a friend named Andrew Barmwell. Barmwell is a solider at the Killeen military base who’d reported his car stolen on Thursday morning.
“He’s a real good dude, he was in college and making music, and was trying to live regular,” Wilson said of his brother. Owens’ grandmother, a Killeen, Texas resident, told the American-Statesman her grandson enjoyed producing music and was trying to do good and provide for his toddler son.
“I pray. I pray. I pray,” she said. “He is good. He is so good… Whatever happened was out of his control, I am sure.” She said she was grief-stricken and shocked to hear the allegations against her grandson and declined to give her name as she did not yet know the full details of the incident.
She told the paper that she had learned of the fatal crash from an American-Statesman reporter. According to Owens’ grandmother, Owens resided in Killeen with his family and kept a close relationship with his grandmother. She said he would often call home and appeared to be doing well.
Owens’ Facebook page features numerous photos of himself producing music using a small home studio setup. According to CBS Dallas-Fort Worth’s Mireya Villarreal, Owens was signed to small label, Gavah Entertainment, run by a student at Full Sail University, which Owens also attended.
Owens maintained an active presence on social media, regularly updating friends and family about his latest production efforts, as well as uploading music to his SoundCloud account. His last SoundCloud post was 22 days ago. The clip has received several comments from angry users.
Public records show Owens had several misdemeanour arrests in the Fairbanks Fourth District in Alaska, including charges of minor under the influence and criminal trespass. In October 2011, he was charged with DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, and a petition to revoke probation.
According to court filings, Owens pleaded guilty only to the DUI misdemeanour charge. Prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanour fleeing offence. Owens reportedly has an active warrant in Alaska for a failure to appear in court. He does not appear to have a criminal history in Travis County.
Austin police say they will charge the 21-year-old suspected drunken driver with two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault. Capital murder is Texas’ highest offence and is punishable by imprisonment for life without parole or the death penalty, under state law.
Watch: K.A.B. & Sincere – Stripper News
Watch: MacLife & Marz – Retarded (Shot and Edited by KillingAllBeatz)
Listen: K.A.B. – Reason Beats
