BROWNSVILLE, Texas — An SUV driver who killed eight people when he plowed into a group waiting at a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, police said Monday as investigators try determine if the accident was intentional.
Authorities believe driver George Alvarez, 34, of Brownsville, lost control after running a red light early Sunday morning and plowed into a crowd outside an immigration center in the city , which has long been an epicenter of migration on the US-Mexico border.
Police Chief Felix Sauceda said Alvarez was charged with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and ten counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Officials are awaiting toxicology reports to determine if Alvarez was intoxicated, Sauceda said, adding that there was no motive he could discuss. Asked about witness reports that Alvarez was cursing at them, Sauceda said there was nothing to confirm that yet.
The SUV ran a red light, lost control, flipped onto its side and hit 18 people, Sauceda told reporters Monday morning. Six people died on the spot and 12 people were seriously injured, he said. Authorities said the death toll later rose.
Alvarez tried to run away but was detained by several people at the scene, he said. His bail was set at $3.6 million.
The victims hit by the vehicle were waiting for the bus to return to downtown Brownsville after spending the night at the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. The center is the city’s only overnight shelter and handles the release of thousands of migrants from federal custody.
The victims were all male and some of them were from Venezuela, Sauceda said. The department works with representatives from Venezuela and other countries. Law enforcement and shelter officials have not released the identities of the slain victims.
Surveillance video from the Ozanam Center showed some of the victims sitting on the sidewalk when they were hit at the bus stop.
“This SUV, a Range Rover, had just turned on the light that was about 30 meters away and just passed the people who were sitting at the bus stop,” said shelter director Victor Maldonado. who reviewed the surveillance video.
Some people walking on the sidewalk about 9 meters (30 feet) from the main group were also hit, Maldonado said. On Monday morning, Jackson Duarte, 30, a Venezuelan migrant, was wearing a friend’s haircut that he got at the Ozanam shelter, where they were both staying. It was the last haircut I would get from him.
Duarte said the victims included three people he met at the shelter; two of them died while a third is in hospital with a missing limb. He said one of his friends who was killed was a barber, and the other was a young man who had recently celebrated a birthday.
Shortly before the accident, Duarte had decided to share an Uber with a friend instead of waiting for the bus downtown. It was during that trip that Duarte began receiving messages about the fatal accident via Whatsapp. Duarte said his friend, whom he described as a studious and ambitious young man, was going downtown to reunite with his mother after crossing the border. Only Duarte arrived at the bus station.
“Unfortunately, I had to share this with his mother,” Duarte said. “She was desperate because her son had just turned 18 and they had been through so much trying to get here for him to lose his life here.”
Duarte’s other friend, the barber, was also heading downtown to get a cell phone after raising money by offering haircuts, he had told Duarte.
Duarte said his friend told him “I’ll see you in a little while,” and that was one of the last things his friend said to him.
“It hit me really hard. I still feel bad. I can’t believe it. I don’t feel good. I couldn’t sleep all night,” Duarte said, breaking down as she thought about her friends who lost their lives . .
“I think the community as a whole is mourning the loss of souls,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino said Monday. “It’s a terrible tragic event. And regardless of whether it was intentional or accidental, it doesn’t matter. Those eight individuals who now lost their lives and the other 10 who are hospitalized, we’re praying for them and their families. “It’s not shared no news indicating whether the driver hit the group of people intentionally as a hate crime.
“I hope it wasn’t like that,” Trevino said. “The indications are that it was just a terrible, tragic accident.”
The Ozanam center remains at capacity, but there are plans to expand the number of sleeping places from 250 to 380 per night. During the day, migrants can look for work to pay for bus tickets or plane tickets that cost hundreds of dollars.
“They stay here at seven in the morning,” said Victor Maldonado, executive director of the Ozanam shelter, on Monday. “They are picked up to go do jobs, paint, mow gardens; they get their money and move on.”
Brownsville has seen a marked increase in Venezuelan migrants over the past two weeks for reasons that are not yet clear, officials said. The recent surge in migrant numbers prompted Brownsville commissioners to indefinitely extend an emergency declaration during a special meeting last week.
Approximately 30,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have entered the US in the region since mid-April. That compares with the 1,700 migrants that Border Patrol agents found in the first two weeks of April.
