A 24-year-old Honduran national was struck and killed on a highway while trying to escape from ICE agents who stopped his vehicle, officials said.
Jose Castro-Rivera was in a vehicle that was stopped on eastbound I-264 in Virginia around 11 a.m. local time Thursday, according to Virginia State Police, who were responding to a report of a vehicle-pedestrian crash at the Military Highway interchange.
Upon arrival, officers found an adult male who had been struck by a 2002 Ford pickup truck. The man was identified as Rivera and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A preliminary investigation by VSP revealed that he was “fleeing a pursuit initiated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when he exited his vehicle and attempted to cross the highway.”
VSP officials were not involved in the pursuit, but are investigating the pedestrian accident, which remains under investigation.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said ICE stopped the vehicle the Honduran national was traveling in as part of a “targeted intelligence-driven immigration enforcement operation.”
“After determining that the occupants were in the United States illegally, agents began arresting the occupants of the targeted vehicle. However, one of the occupants of the vehicle, José Castro-Rivera, resisted strongly and fled the scene on a busy highway, creating a significant risk to his safety and that of the general public,” the agency said. “Unfortunately, a passing vehicle struck Castro-Rivera.”
One of the ICE agents administered CPR to Castro-Rivera before he died, the DHS spokesperson said.
“The officer then informed the three detained aliens that their friend had died,” the DHS spokesperson said.
Federal crackdowns have been occurring nationally in recent weeks.
Earlier this weekNine African immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during what DHS called a “targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street in New York City focused on criminal activity related to the sale of counterfeit goods.”
ICE has deported approximately 140 people to Venezuela under its mandate. last deletion flight on October 15.
