Kevin Bronson on March 13th, 2014

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The South by Southwest Music Festival was reeling Thursday in the wake of the carnage caused when a drunken driving suspect sped his car into a crowd of festival-goers early Thursday morning, killing two people and injuring 23.

One of the fatalities was identified as Copenhagen-based creative director Steven Craenmehr, 35, who worked for Massive Music Agency. The other was an Austin woman whose identify has not yet been made public. Reports this afternoon identified the suspect as 22-year-old Rashad Charjuan Owens, who, in an attempt to flee police, drove his car around a police barricade and into a crowd on Red River Avenue near two of SXSW’s most prominent venues, the Mohawk and Stubb’s.

News of the tragedy spread quickly via social media – “Are you OK?” “We’re OK” – with everybody in Austin in seemingly close proximity to the tragedy because at some point during the festival they frequent the areas where the incident occurred. One witness, who asked that she not be identified (she apparently is not supposed to be Austin), said she was about 20 feet from where the car entered the area closed to vehicular traffic. “Everything started flying … bags, phones, then bodies,” she said. “Then everybody started running to help.”

Festival-goers spent much of Thursday mourning the victims, expressing anger at the driver and swapping stories about where they were when the incident happened. X, who was playing at the Mohawk at the time, said via Twitter: “Our thoughts and prayers go to the families of the two people killed and the 23 injured. This was a senseless tragedy.”

The festival’s managing director Roland Swenson issued a statement saying: “The SXSW staff is stunned and deeply moved by the events of last night. Dozens of us were on the scene when the incident occurred and we worked closely with [Austin police]  to create a perimeter around the area, turning back all the visitors spilling out of the clubs who headed north on Red River Street. … Despite all of our preparations for dealing with a major incident during SXSW, nothing could really prepare us for how this feels. As much as we would like to just go home and spend time absorbing the shock of this horrific event, we feel our best use is to continue to operate today.”

Venues near the site of the deaths canceled their day parties Thursday. There was no word yet on whether scheduled evening events would go off as scheduled.