Seven people were killed and 10 others were injured in a hit-and-run car crash outside a shelter for homeless migrants in the Texas border city of Brownsville on Sunday morning, local police said.
Investigators believe the crash was an intentional attack on people waiting at a bus stop across the street from the building, local NBC affiliate KVEO reported.
The tragedy came as the national debate on immigration from the southern border has been at a fever pitch.
“We were going to the airport and it happened unexpectedly because a woman in a car passed by and advised us to separate,” victim Luis Herrera told KVEO. “And moments later the killer was coming in the car gesturing and insulting us.”
A suspect was arrested at the scene and charged with reckless driving, the outlet reported. Authorities planned to file more charges against him, Brownsville police officer Martin Sandoval told KVEO.
Neither the suspect nor the victims were immediately identified. The driver was also transported to a local hospital.
“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.”
Victor Maldonado, director of the Ozanam Shelter that houses up to 250 people per night, reviewed surveillance video of the incident.
“What we see in the video is that this SUV, a Range Rover, just ran the light that was about a hundred feet away and just went through the people who were sitting there in the bus stop,” Maldonado said. Most of the victims were Venezuelan men, he added.
A witness told KVEO she saw several bodies covered on the street and another victim being placed in an ambulance.
The Ozanam Center is Brownsville’s only overnight shelter and sits about three miles from the Rio Grande.
“The Center provides a unique holistic Homeless Services Program, delivering emergency shelter, case management services, Food Pantry services, and Homeless Prevention services to the area’s most vulnerable residents: needy families, run-away youth, the elderly, individuals with substance abuse problems, mental illness and other special needs,” according to its website.
Police are trying to determine a motive for the attack. Sandoval said there were three possible explanations: the driver was intoxicated, it was an honest accident or it was an intentional act.
“Using dangerous & violent rhetoric leads to dangerous & violent acts,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigrant Coalition. “[Seven] asylum seekers who made a incredible journey seeking safety & refuge were mowed down & murdered. They fled for their lives to have them taken away — where they believed they were safe.”
The deadly crash came a day after eight people were killed and seven others wounded in a shooting at a mall in the north Dallas suburb of Allen, about 450 miles north of Brownsville.
Brownsville sits directly across the border from Matamoros, Mexico. The city of more than 180,000 is generally considered much safer than its Mexican neighbor.
In March, four Americans were kidnapped in Matamoros. Two were killed and two survived the ordeal. One of Matamoros’ warring cartels claimed that it identified the kidnappers in its own ranks and turned them over to police.