Las Vegas crash: Details emerge about suspect

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A woman charged in a deadly hit-and-run crash in Las Vegas was once praised for overcoming a rough childhood and homelessness, it has emerged.

In a video, Lakeisha Holloway describes finishing school and working at a good job after being raised by an alcoholic mother and living on the streets.

Police said she had struggled since the 2012 video and was living in her car with her daughter before the crash.

One woman was killed in the crash and more than 30 people were hurt.

Prosecutors on Tuesday formally charged Ms Holloway, 24, with murder.

She was also charged with child abuse because her three-year-old girl was inside the car at the time of the crash. The child was unhurt.

"I'm appalled at the callousness of this defendant's conduct and what appears to be an intentional act," Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said.

Joseph Abood, a lawyer for Ms Holloway, said she plans to plead not guilty to the charges. Ms Holloway was on suicide watch while she was being held without bail, police said.

Police said they did not know why Ms Holloway, originally from Portland, Oregon, drove into the crowd on Sunday and it appeared that she was not intoxicated.

Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, was killed and three others remain in a critical condition in hospital.

The non-profit Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, which helps at-risk youths with education and job training, had given Ms Holloway an award in 2012 and featured her in one of its promotional videos.

The person in the video is markedly different to the woman who told police on Sunday that she ended up broke on the Las Vegas Strip, "a place she did not want to be".

"Today I'm not the same scared girl I used to be. I'm a mature young woman that has broken many generational cycles that those before me hadn't," Ms Holloway said in the video.