A woman plowed her car through a crowded street festival, injuring about 35 people, including two police officers who drove their motor scooters into her path attempting to stop her, authorities said.
Police said seven of the victims, including two children under age three, suffered major injuries in the incident on Saturday night.
Officers caught up with the driver, whom they identified as Tonya Bell, 30, of Oxon Hill, Maryland, near the site of the festival in the city's Anacostia neighborhood. She was arrested and charged with aggravated assault while armed. The "armed" part of the charge refers to the car. District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier said additional charges are pending.
Police said Bell had a seven-year-old child in the car with her.
They were conducting blood tests that would show whether alcohol or drugs were involved.
"We're still trying to piece together exactly just what happened that led up to this," Lanier said at the scene.
She said a vehicle believed to be Bell's was driving erratically and struck a police car and fled the scene about a half-hour before the crash at the festival, which occurred at about 8pm.
Alan Etter, a spokesman for the District of Columbia fire department, said authorities believe Bell was going about 115kph when she came through the festival.
The scene cordoned off on Saturday night extended for several blocks, which illustrated the vehicle's long path of destruction. Litter and debris from festival food stands were scattered in the street.
Witnesses described an extended period of mayhem in which the driver started off slowly through some closed streets and finally hit the accelerator on the avenue running through the heart of Unifest, an annual event sponsored by a church.
The car hit a stage where people were dancing, witnesses said.
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