Woman who plowed into DC street fair worked for Marion Barry

Hey look! Another crack cocaine story involving Marion Barry!!

Via WaPo online:

The woman charged with driving through a crowded Southeast Washington festival this weekend -- injuring dozens -- had been "smoking crack all day long," Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said yesterday, citing witnesses and the woman's statement to police.

The driver, whom police identified as 30-year-old Tonya Bell of Oxon Hill, is charged with aggravated assault while armed. She has felony and misdemeanor arrests dating to at least 1995 and has served time in prison for charges involving cocaine. Bell suffered a sprained ankle Saturday night in an episode Mayor Adrian M. Fenty described as "one of the worst serious traffic accidents" in D.C. history.

At least 40 people, including seven children, were hurt when Bell drove her station wagon through the crowd. In the midst of the mayhem, parents pushed their children aside and tossed empty strollers in her path, hoping to block her. Police on bicycles and motorbikes didn't dare use their weapons with so many people at risk. Instead, they threw two motorized scooters beneath Bell's vehicle, bringing it to a stop.

The article goes on to say:

D.C. Council member Marion Barry said his chief of staff is trying to determine whether Bell works as a temporary employee for Barry’s council office. Barry…said someone named Tonya Bell has worked in the office for several weeks. “Whether it is the same person or not, I am trying to check it out,” Barry said last night.

Faux News has confirmed that she is indeed, an employee at Marion Barry's office. I'll have a link as soon as I can find one.

UPDATE: This is hilarious, except for the fact that she hurt 40 people:

"I dragged the young lady out of the car. When I dragged her out of the car people were trying to hurt her. They were beating her, they were stomping her in the head, but she didn't feel a thing. She reached to get her pipe, a crack pipe and lit it," the witness told News4.

UPDATE #2: Linkage, finally!

The woman who plowed through a crowd of people with her car Saturday night will no longer be working as a receptionist in the office of Washington, D.C., Councilman Marion Barry.

Barry, the former mayor, terminated a contract with the company who provided Tonya Bell as a temporary employee for his office.

"Needless to say we are greatly saddened by the incident not only because of the tremendous pain and suffering of the victims, but also because our office relied on the integrity of your screening procedures in agreeing to the placement," Barry wrote in a letter sent to NAI Personnel, the employment agency.

"The behavior of your employee, although outside of work, indicates that you may not have properly investigated her background prior to placing her in our office," the letter reads.