Emergency personnel respond to a fatal collision in Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday. Several people were killed after they were struck by a vehicle while waiting at a bus stop near Ozanam Center, a migrant and homeless shelter.
Michael Gonzalez / AP
Police in Brownsville, Texas say at least seven people are dead and six others were injured after they were struck by a vehicle while waiting for a bus in the border community. The driver is in custody.
The crash occurred at about 8:30 a.m. on Sunday at a bus stop near the Ozanam Center, a shelter for migrants, Brownsville Police investigator Lt. Martin Sandoval said in a video posted to the department's Facebook page.
Sandoval told ABC affiliate KRGV that an unknown number of immigrants were among the victims.
Ozanam Center shelter director Victor Maldonado said he reviewed the shelter's surveillance footage after receiving a call about the crash, The Associated Press reported.
People waiting at an unmarked city bus stop had been sitting on the curb, Maldonado told the news agency. He said most of the victims were Venezuelan men.
Video shows a Range Rover SUV running a red light about 100 feet away from the bus stop before plowing into the group of people sitting on the curb, Maldonado said. The SUV flipped after running over curb and continued moving for another 200 feet.
Some people who were walking on the sidewalk about 30 feet away from the main group were also hit, Maldonado told the AP.
The driver, identified as a man from Brownsville, has been charged with reckless driving, Sandoval told KRGV. He said authorities are investigating whether the crash was intentional or accidental. They are also testing the driver for intoxication.
"It is looking more and more like an intentional act," Sandoval told the station.
The driver was being treated at the hospital before he is taken to jail, he said.
A group of people were waiting for a bus to take them to the airport, where, from there, they would take another bus or a flight, Sandoval said.
The Ozanam Center shelter sits just five miles from the migrant encampments in Matamoros, Mexico, where thousands of migrants are waiting for Title 42 to expire. The pandemic-era public health order, set to be lifted this week, allows the U.S. to expel migrants without considering asylum.
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