DRIVER PLOWS INTO MIGRANTS; KILLS SEVEN AT SCENE, AN EIGHTH DIES LATER: INVESTIGATORS SUSPECT ASSAULT WAS INTENTIONAL

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Details are sketchy, but eyewitnesses reported this morning at about 8:30 a.m. that a driver – at first thought to have been a teenager perhaps under the influence of alcohol – plowed a Range Rover into a large group of about 30 migrants sitting on the curb at a bus stop near the Ozanam Center at the corner of Houston and Minnesota roads causing seven fatalities.

Another nine were said to be in critical condition at local hospitals. The driver is in custody. One of them, a man pictured on social media with one of his legs just a bloody stump, reportedly died later at a local hospital.

(We were sent a near-five minute video of the carnage immediately after the migrants were run over and before first responders arrived but it's heartbreaking and we preferred not to post the incredible human suffering and pain.) 

And now, a broadcast statement by Brownsville Police Department spokesman Lt. Martin Sandoval hints that it may not have been an accident after all, but a deliberate act but stopped short of classifying it as a hate crime against migrants, or of identifying a motive.

Several survivors told a local broadcaster that a woman who passed in a white vehicle shouted at them to separate before it was overtaken by the Range Rover on the right and that the driver was shouting insults at them before plowing into the seated group of migrants further up Minnesota Road.

The Washington Post reports one of the migrants, Luis Herrera, who was among those hit by the SUV, said in an interview that many of the victims already had tickets out of Brownsville, some to reunite with their families. Herrera, 33, who suffered a broken arm and was released from the hospital Sunday afternoon, said the driver was taunting people standing at the bus stop, driving past them and yelling insults.

“He crossed the street and he hit the gas and he drove by my legs, and hurt my arm,” he said in Spanish. “The others, he killed almost all of them.”
He recalled the driver yelling: “You’re invading my property!”

Sandoval said the driver allegedly ran a red light and plowed into a group of people standing at the bus stop or sitting at the curb.

Initially, the speculation of people at the scene that a drunk teenager was behind the wheel was contradicted by photos posted on social media that showed an adult man being arrested by Brownsville Police Department officers. Reports indicate that a growing mob was gathering to assault him when he was taken into custody.

(Although police have not identified the driver to local news outlets, a Washington Examiner post states that local police identified him as Michael Alexander Nash, 30. However, this is suspect since it's the the same name and age of a man who was killed in a car crash last week.) 

The Brownsville Police Department blocked off Minnesota Road and Austin Road due to the major nature accident.The bus stop on the right-of-way consists of only a sign and has no benches or shade.

ValleyCentral reporter Brian Svendsen says he could see at least five people dead at the scene. Their bodies were covered with sheets. 

A source close to the Ozanam Center said that  director Victor Maldonado had called for grief and trauma counselors to minister to the survivors who had lost a relative or had one injured.

"They're mothers and cousins, sisters and brothers and they are traumatized, going crazy over their relatives,"  he told said. 

The director said that they had asked  Bus Metro in the past to place a bus shelter at the busy ridership site so people wouldn't have to sit at the curb to wait for the bus. As a result they are exposed to traffic, or in this case, a reckless or alcohol-impaired driver.

A woman who happen to drive by the scene told Svendsen she saw several bodies covered on the road, plus another victim being put into an ambulance. She also saw several ladies praying nearby.

Brownsville police spokesperson Martin Sandoval said they received a call at around 8:30 a.m. and had had to block the area. Sandoval asked that drivers to find an alternative route. 

He also told news media that the driver had been treated for injuries and at a minimum would be facing reckless driving charges. He did not identify the driver or say whether alcohol or drugs was a factor in the accident. At the time, Sandoval did not indicate that it might have been a deliberate act.

 Sandoval told ABC News that the driver was in custody under 24-hour watch and that tests were being performed for alcohol and drugs.

This is a developing story and we will try to give you updates.