Just after midnight on Saturday October 12, Off With Their Head’s bassist, Robbie Swartwood was involved in a gruesome accident which resulted in a young woman’s severe obstruction to her face. In a statement from Sergeant Aaron Roed of the Vancouver Police Department, it was confirmed what many social media speculators have already estimated. There is video evidence of Desiree Evancio (24) crossing the street between the band’s van and trailer while at a stop. This went unnoticed by the driver, and she was then dragged for several city blocks once the vehicle resumed motion. While authorities quickly made the scene, early witness reports have described a trail of blood down the street, which made it apparent this was no ordinary accident.
Evancio’s family and friends have rallied to her side, to date raising nearly $200,000 of their million dollar goal to aid in her recovery. (Go Fund Me linked here.) She is expected to be hospitalized for the next year, undergoing various procedures, and her recovery from this, truly, may never end.
Off With Their Heads has since cancelled their tour and refunded all ticket values. Sergeant Roed’s statement is included below.
Hi, it’s Sergeant Aaron Roed of the Vancouver police. In regard to the car accident and pedestrian struck in Vancouver….
This is one of those things which is a tragedy and it’s life changing for everyone involved. Desiree, the female who was physically affected by the car accident as well as the driver of the vehicle. We are not releasing any names in regard to that person at this time, although, I think, it’s kind of out there on social media who’s involved and that kind of stuff. What we are able to say is this appears to be a tragic accident. She did cross between, and this is new information that’s coming out. She did cross between the van and the trailer. Why this happened? Our investigators are still looking into it, and it will be a while for us to determine why she did that, if we are able, even, to ever determine why that happened. She is no state at all, and we don’t know that she ever will be, to answer that question. It does appear at this time to be an accident and the driver would not have known how and why this happened.
We are not proceeding with charges at this time. The investigation is ongoing. When all the information is gathered, it takes a while for something like this, for our collision investigation team to gather everything, put it all together and figure out why and how this happened. We may not know. We do know that she crossed behind the van… between the van and the trailer, while it was stopped and before it started moving again. So it appears that the vehicle was waiting to turn and she crossed. You can understand, but we don’t know why. There’s a lot of speculation. Was she trying to get a bus? We don’t know. Did she even recognize the trailer was there. We don’t know. We don’t have that answer yet, and that’s the evidence we are building at this time. Family is aware of the situation, and its very emotional for them to be going through this. That’s the tough part in any investigation like this that affects people so dramatically.
I don’t believe [there were witnesses], but there is video. That’s how we know that she crossed between the van and the trailer. {And you know it was stopped?} Yes. That’s why we are saying its a tragic accident and the driver would not have known that this was occurring as they were driving. At the time there were no charges and the investigation is ongoing. We don’t believe there is going to be charges laid against him. We are still gathering information. Things could change. Right now, in this time, there’s no charges being laid.