Man struck and killed by tractor trailer while running from ICE agents in St Augustine, police say
A man running from an encounter with immigration and other federal agents in Florida was struck and killed by a tractor trailer on Tuesday, authorities said.
The 28-year-old was among four occupants of a vehicle that stopped in the parking lot of a gas station and convenience store in St. Augustine before 7 a.m.
During an encounter with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Homeland Security Investigations, the four fled on foot, with one darting across a busy road into the path of the semi, Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Dylan Bryan said in an emailed statement. The driver of the semi stopped and tried to help the man, Bryan said.
It was the third death in about a week involving encounters with ICE agents, following shootings in Texas and Maine.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement to CBS News about the incident that reads:
"On July 14, DHS law enforcement conducted an operation near St. Johns, Florida. Florida Highway Patrol and HSI are investigating an incident resulting in the death of a Mexican national. We will provide an update when available."
State Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democrat from Jacksonville, called the death a tragedy that resulted from an out-of-control agency.
"Whether it's ICE agents gunning down a father in the streets of Houston, shooting a young man in Maine or conducting operations right here in Northeast Florida that result in a deadly crash, the outcome is the same: fear, chaos and death," she said.
In two other cases, people died after fleeing agents and being struck by vehicles.
Last summer, a man running from immigration officers outside a Home Depot store in southern California died after being hit by an SUV as he tried to cross a freeway. Homeland Security officials said that 52-year-old Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, of Guatemala, was not being pursued by immigration authorities when he was struck.
In October, a pickup truck fatally struck 24-year-old gardener Josué Castro Rivera, of Honduras, on a highway in Norfolk, Virginia, as he tried to escape authorities during a traffic stop. Authorities said Castro Rivera's vehicle was stopped as part of a "targeted, intelligence-based" operation and that Castro Rivera had "resisted heavily and fled."
The Mexican government on Tuesday said it had asked state attorneys general in the U.S. to review the deaths of migrants in ICE custody or during raids for possible criminal prosecution.
No additional information about the man has been released.