“I was two blocks away” was a post I kept seeing in variations in the early morning of Thursday March 14. “We were outside the Mohawk just 15 minutes earlier.” It could have been any of us, but it was Steven Craenmehr, 35 and Jamie West, 27, who were pronounced dead at the scene. Sandy Le, 26, would die four days later from her injuries and DeAndre Tatum, 18, would pass away two weeks after the incident that tried to rip out our hearts, but only made them stronger.
Four people with different backgrounds, coming together on Red River Street to hear the music and feed off the energy. It could have been any of us.
The night of Wednesday March 13 had been one of the happiest I’ve ever spent at SXSW. Margaret Moser hosted the Austin Music Awards for the 31st and final time and every Austin musician, DJ, writer, clubowner and manager not working turned out. A true Austin music family reunion. I got out in the fresh air outside the Convention Center at about midnight and decided to walk as far as I could before hopping in a pedicab. But strolling with my son felt so good we just kept going home. On the way, a couple cop cars screeched forward with lights going crazy, then an ambulance. “Hope it’s nothing bad,” I said.
In 27 years of SXSW, no one had died. But due to an insanely selfish act that lasted less than a minute, four lost their lives and 19 more were hospitalized.
SXSW is people from all over the world with diverse experiences coming together to discover what they have in common. They roam the streets in search of music that’s going to make them feel most alive. Some of us had done that every March since 1987. The SXSW experience became an almost sacred part of being an Austinite and that was violated at about 12:30 a.m. on March 14.
Daniel Nortcutt was manning a food booth at the Mohawk when he ran outside with everybody else to see what all the screaming was about. “The only thing going through the minds of any of the first responders was ‘help these people,’” said Nortcutt, who owns the Frank gourmet hot dog restaurant. On Frank’s outside wall is a mural that changes on the first of every month and on March 31 Frank Public Art unveiled a work by local artist Frederico Archuleta that addresses the SXSW tragedy. A pair of helping hands with a message in wristbands. On the right wrist are the words “help heal the hurt” and on the left wrist are bands bearing the names DeAndre, Sandy, Steven and Jamie. At the unveiling, Northcutt wept. Grief is on its own timetable. “That’s when it hit me, what happened” he said. “When I saw the names, my emotions took over.”
They were a couple who moved to Austin together to start their married lives, a pair of high school sweethearts who took a road trip from Fort Worth, a young woman who moved here from Mississippi to finish her studies at the University of Texas, and a new father from Amsterdam whose career in the music business was really starting to take off. Their ages ranged from 18- 35, like a demographic, which is fitting because they represent us. Jamie, DeAndre, Sandy, Steven: four people, so loved, who had lives of such promise ahead.
Steven Craenmehr was the creative director of MassiveMusic, a leading European music agency based in Amsterdam. With a natural talent for linking people who could help each other out, Craenmehr was the sort of connected international businessman that SXSW was created for. “Change the world through music” was the mantra of the sometime singer (Perneau) and producer. He was on Red River at about midnight to see Kurt Vile at Cheer Up Charlies with friends. When he hopped on his rented bike to catch his next must-see act, the car without a conscience ended a remarkable life. Craenmehr left behind a son Mick, not yet 2.
Jamie West and her future husband Evan West met in high school in Garrett, Ind. and started dating in college. Artists and vegans, they worked at theeartland Café in the Chicago suburb of Rogers Park. The couple and their two dogs moved to Austin in 2010, after Evan had tried it on his own for four months and came back to get Jamie. They married in June 2012. Before her death, Jamie West set her ambitions on a prestigious art residency in Houston, while working at a jewelry boutique shop in Austin. The couple were on a scooter when they were hit. Evan West, 28, who worked at Violet Crown Cinema downtown, suffered head trauma, a broken leg and ribs and internal injuries to his organs. He’s been released from the hospital and is going through rehab.
Sandy Le grew up in the Vietnamese-American shrimp business on the gulf coast of Mississippi. Her family had gone through hard times, losing their house in Hurricane Katrina and then watching the shrimp business suffer after the BP oil spill. Le was ready to strike out on her own three years ago and moved to Austin with a close-knit group of friends from Pass-Christian, Miss. Described by friends as someone who lit up rooms and lived life to its fullest, Le’s hospital room was always full of visitors, a mix of Mississippi relatives and Austin friends. Many hearts broke when she succumbed to her injuries on March 17.
DeAndre Tatum was a 2013 graduate of Trimble Tech High School in Fort Worth, in training as a plumber. He and his girlfriend of three years, Curtisha Davis, a senior cheerleader at Trimble, were just hanging out on Red River Street outside the Mohawk, like everybody else checking out the scene for Tyler the Creator’s 1 a.m. showcase, when the car crashed the barriers and gunned into the crowd. Even though Trimble Tech was closed for spring break, students came to the campus to hear any updates on the conditions of their friends. Tish was released from the hospital with broken bones, but DeAndre Tatum didn’t make it home.
These are the people who embody the spirit of diversity and togetherness that define SXSW. Not a minute of senseless violence. The SXSW Cares fund to raise money to help the victims with expenses not covered by insurance or other channels, has raised over $200,000. Much of that came from 30 benefit shows all around town, from April 12- 20. But there have been other acts of kindness. A dance studio in Round Rock raised $1,500 by giving dance lessons to kids. Over 2,500 people have donated to the fund, administered by the Austin Community Foundation with input from the American Red Cross and APD Victims Services Division. Log onto and hit the give button. And there’s still time, until May 11, to bid in the online auction of local goods and services. Give because it helps and feels good. Give because it could’ve been you.