Car Slams Into D.C. Festival, Injuring 35

The man, Eric Traylor, who lives in the 2200 block of 13th Street, said he saw the vehicle crash through a gate at W and 13th streets. "Everybody screamed at her, 'Stop! Stop!' "

One victim Traylor saw was a woman whose skin had been torn from her body as she was dragged, he said. He also saw an unconscious man bleeding from the head.

Relatives spent much of the night in an anxious effort to find family members who had been taken all over the city for treatment.

Andre Johnson and three relatives were on Good Hope Road SE watching the festival when the car headed toward them. Demari Robinson, who is 23 months old, was in a stroller, and Johnson swung it out of the way.

Johnson was struck, and the boy was scraped. Both were being treated at hospitals late last night, according to Shirl Scales, a family member.

She said another relative, a 13-year-old girl, was taken to Georgetown University Hospital, with a possible broken leg.

Still another member of the family had not been located, Scales said.

Unifest, which was started in 1982 by Union Temple Baptist Church as a small soul-food festival, has grown into a massive celebration that stretches for blocks along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and into side streets. The church pastor, the Rev. Willie Wilson said that one year 300,000 people attended.

Staff writers Martin Weil and Robert E. Pierre contributed to this report.