Eight people were killed Sunday and nine others injured after a motorist allegedly plowed into them while they waited at a city bus stop near a migrant shelter in Brownsville, Texas, police said.
The group of mostly Venezuelan men was sitting on a curb at an unmarked stop across the street from the shelter at about 8:30 a.m. when a Range Rover SUV ran the traffic light and drove through the people sitting at the stop, according to the head of the shelter.
The killings appear to have been intentional, according to ValleyCentral.com. The driver has been described as a Hispanic male who lives in the area.
“It was sudden” Luis Herrera, a Venezuelan immigrant, told The Post. “A woman drove by and told us to leave the area. We started to leave, and in a second the driver came up and was pointing at us, cursing, calling us things like, ‘Motherf—–‘ and other things I didn’t understand.”
“When he drove up, he stepped on the gas,” Herrera said, stopping to wipe tears from his face. “Full force. He passed over me.”
Herrera said the people who died were his friends.
Videos posted to Twitter further illuminated the death and destruction wrought by the driver.
One clip — shot from a raised stationary camera — showed the Range Rover speeding toward a group of about two dozen people. It veered onto the curb at the last moment and tore through the crowd like a wrecking ball.
In another clip, a person walked between the scattered bodies on the pavement. The dead lay twisted, while the badly wounded groaned and wept as they lay in their own blood.
Police and other first responders scrambled back and forth, trying to help the victims.
Victor Maldonado, director of the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, said the SUV flipped after it hit the curb, then kept moving for another 200 feet or so and struck people walking on the sidewalk.
Seven victims died at the scene, Lt. Martin Sandoval told the news station. Another 10 were brought to the hospital, where one later succumbed to their injuries — increasing the total number of fatalities to eight by Sunday night.
The Ozanam shelter, which manages the release of thousands of migrants from federal custody, is the only overnight shelter in Brownsville. Perched on the Mexican border near the Gulf of Mexico, the city of about 185,000 has long been an epicenter for migration.
Authorities have arrested the driver for reckless driving, the station said. They brought him to the hospital, where he is being checked for alcohol and drug use, according to ABC News.
He is also being held under 24-hour guard watch, cops said.
Sandoval said police will likely charge him with more crimes – especially if they find his act was intentional.
A witness told the station that she saw several bodies on the road, covered by shrouds. Women nearby were praying, she added.
The 250-bed shelter had not received threats before the crash, Maldonado said. But it did after.
“I’ve had a couple of people come by the gate and tell the security guard that the reason this happened was because of us,” Maldonado said.
Border crossings have increased in the last several weeks, prompting the city to declare an emergency. Local, state and federal agencies have been trying to coordinate an enforcement and humanitarian response.
Roads around the area have been closed, police said.
With Post wires
