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One person was killed and at least 35 others were injured Sunday night after a driver struck a crowd of pedestrians on a Las Vegas sidewalk.
The driver who allegedly killed 1 person and injured 35 others was identified as 24-year-old Lakeisha Holloway, who had recently moved from Portland, Oregon.
The crash took place on the Strip Sunday evening near the Paris hotel and casino, closing down Las Vegas Boulevard between Harmon Avenue and Flamingo Road, which included the area where the Miss Universe pageant was taking place.
The woman killed was identified Monday as Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, according to KVVU-TV.
Four people have been treated and released, but seven of the victims are in critical but stable condition, Las Vegas Metropolitan Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters at a news conference Monday.
The driver was identified as 24-year-old Lakeisha Holloway, who had recently moved from Portland, Oregon.
Authorities have still not identified a motive for the attack on the crowd, but said Holloway was driving despite having her license suspended.
“Her license was suspended by the Oregon DMV in 2012 and was also suspended by (Portland’s) Multnomah County in 2013 and has not been reinstated,” Sally Ridenour, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation, told Reuters.
Based on a statement Holloway made to authorities at the time of her arrest, it appeared that there had been some “disassociation” with the father of her 3-year-old daughter, Lombardo said.
She had been living in her car in Las Vegas for the last week, he added.
With lingering questions in the case, authorities are “not 100% ruling out terrorism,” said Lombardo.
Intentionally driving into a crowd on Las Vegas Boulevard “is something hard to explain at face value,” he added. “I feel comfortable saying now I do not believe it to be an act of terrorism.”
Las Vegas District Attorney Steve Wolfson said his office plans to file charges against Holloway for first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, as well as possible charges of child abuse or neglect and fleeing the scene of an accident.
Read more at http://www.buzzfeed.com/claudiakoerner/car-hits-pedestrians-on-las-vegas-strip?utm_term=.ej5bnPyWP#.kbWmrQA1Q
