Seven people were killed and over a dozen were injured after an SUV slammed into a crowd Sunday who were waiting at a bus stop outside a migrant shelter in Brownsville, Texas.
The director of the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, Victor Maldonado, reviewed the camera footage of the incident and said it appeared the crash was intentional.
“What we see in the video is that this SUV, a Range Rover, just ran the light that was about 100 feet away and just went through the people who were sitting there in the bus stop,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado said most of the victims were migrants from Venezuela.
The driver was detained by witnesses until police arrived. Lt. Martin Sandoval of the Brownsville Police Department told NBC News they are investigating if the driver was intoxicated or whether the incident was an accident.
Sandoval added the driver, who is a Hispanic male, has not been cooperating with investigators.
“He’s being very uncooperative at the hospital, but he will be transported to our city jail as soon as he gets released,” Sandoval said. “Then we’ll fingerprint him and (take a) mug shot, and then we can find his true identity.”
“It can be three factors,” Sandoval added. “It could be intoxication; it could be an accident; or it could be intentional. In order for us to find out exactly what happened, we have to eliminate the other two.”
The incident comes just one day after nine people were killed and seven were injured in a shooting Saturday at a Texas outlet mall. The shooter, identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, was known to interact with neo-Nazi and white supremacist content online, according to two senior law enforcement officials. Law enforcement officials found him with a right-wing acronym on his chest.
The news also comes just days before Title 42 restrictions are set to expire, prompting fears of a surge of migrants to the southern border.
Following a request from the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department will add 1,500 military personnel for 90 days at the southern border to help the 2,500 military personnel currently providing support.
