On Sunday, an SUV blew a red light and crashed into a group of people waiting at a bus stop outside a migrant help station in the US state of Texas, killing at least eight and injuring many more, police said.
For the time being, police are considering the incident as an accident, but a witness told AFP that the driver had hurled obscenities at the group before speeding up.
At 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT), police spokesman Martin Sandoval told AFP that a dark SUV “went through a red light and ran over several people” in Brownsville, a border city at the state’s southernmost edge.
Seven individuals were killed, he claimed, and “nearly 10” were hurt. The local media in the US later claimed that one of the injured had passed away from their wounds.
Witness Injured in the event and speaking to AFP, Luis Herrera described the collision as “sudden.”
He explained, “A woman drove SUV by and yelled at us to move out of the way.”
It only took a few seconds. According to the 36-year-old victim from Venezuela, “the killer came (through) in the car, gesturing at us, insulting us.” The motorist, according to Herrera, was putting all of his or her weight into the accelerator.
They bystanders handed over the SUV driver to police
According to Sandoval, bystanders kept the SUV driver until police arrived, and he was also brought to the hospital. Now, he faces charges of reckless driving.
Sandoval had previously informed a local ABC affiliate, “More than likely there’s going to be other charges coming on later,” without providing any further detail as to what those accusations would be.
Late Sunday night, police still had not released any information on the driver, despite a press conference was scheduled for the next day.
According to Sandoval, authorities have begun looking into whether or not the fatal SUV crash was deliberate.
“We’re looking (into it),” he said to AFP.
The intensity of accident
According to Victor Maldonado, executive director of the Ozanam Centre, a homeless shelter across the street from the incident site, the deceased were among a gathering of around 25 people waiting at a bus stop.
He claimed that the group, all of whom were Venezuelan, had just finished eating breakfast inside the establishment. He said that the street was littered with human remains.
“Really shocked,” Maldonado told AFP of the witnesses. As one person put it, “It was pretty intense.”
Since “we’ve been housing individuals coming from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, China, Ukraine — and multiple Venezuelans,” Maldonado said the homeless centre is open around the clock.
Although Sandoval did not know for sure, he believed that some of the victims were migrants.
We are looking into it with the border patrol,” he said.
Brownsville is located within the congressional district of Democrat Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, who tweeted his “praying for all those involved in this horrific incident.”
As officials prepare for Thursday’s repeal of a Trump administration policy that authorises border patrol personnel to deport or turn away migrants without even considering their asylum applications, this tragic news has come at a particularly inopportune time.
Authorities are concerned that the number of people entering the United States illegally would increase after the rule known as Title 42 expires.
This is the latest mass shooting to shake the United States and comes just one day after a gunman killed at least eight people at a Texas shopping mall.
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