Seven people died and up to six were injured on Sunday after beingstruck by a vehicle while waiting at a bus stop urban in front of an immigrant shelter in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, reported the police.
Brownsville Police Investigator Martin Sandoval said the episode occurred around 8:30 a.m.
Shelter director Victor Maldonado of the Obispo Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center said he reviewed the shelter’s surveillance video Sunday morning after receiving a call about the accident.
The urban bus stop is in front of the refuge and is not signposted. There was no bench, and the people waiting there were sitting on the curb, Maldonado said. He said that most of the victims were Venezuelan men.
“What we see in the video is that this SUV, a Range Roverjumped the traffic light that was about 30 meters away and ran over the people who were sitting at the bus stopMaldonado explained.
He added that the SUV overturned after getting on the sidewalk and continued advancing about 60 meters. Some people walking on the sidewalk about 30 feet from the main group were also hit, Maldonado said.
He Ozanam’s shelter is the only overnight shelter in the city of Brownsville and manages the release of thousands of migrants from federal custody. Brownsville has long been an epicenter of migration across the US-Mexico border, becoming a key location for the end next week of pandemic-era border restrictions known as Title 42. .
Sandoval told KRGV-TV that authorities are investigating whether the crash was intentional or an accident. They are also conducting intoxication tests on the driver, who was held at the scene by witnesses.
Maldonado said that the center had not received threats before the crash, but afterward. “A couple of people have come to the door and have told the security guard that the reason this has happened is because of us,” Maldonado said.
The shelter has capacity for 250 people, but many of those who arrive leave the same day. In recent weeks, an uptick in border crossings led the city to declare an emergency as local, state and federal resources coordinated law enforcement and humanitarian response.
“In the last two months, we have received between 250 and 380 a day,” Maldonado said.
Although the shelter offers transportation to migrants during the week, they can also use public transportation in the city. “Some were on their way to the bus station, because they were going to their destination,” said the director.
The event occurs when there are only a few days left until the end, on May 11, of Title 42 immigration regulations, a measure adopted by former Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and later continued by Democratic president Joe Biden to expel migrants with the argument of the covid-19 pandemic.
To prepare for the possible problems generated by the end of this regulation, due to the possible increase in the migratory flow, 1,500 US soldiers will be deployed at the border to support the Border Patrol agents.
With information from AP
Keep reading:
