Police: 8 dead in possible ‘intentional’ crash in Texas border city

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (NewsNation) — Eight people are dead and at least 10 more are injured after they were struck by a vehicle while waiting at a city bus stop, police in Brownsville, Texas, said Sunday.

Brownsville police investigator Martin Sandoval told NewsNation affiliate KVEO in Brownsville that the driver was arrested on reckless driving charges. More charges are likely and it appears to have been an intentional act, Sandoval said.

Sandoval said there are three possible explanations for the collision: “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.

Sources told NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley that all of the victims, deceased and injured, are migrants.

The suspected driver is refusing to cooperate with police, get fingerprinted or take a mugshot, Sandoval said.

“He is not providing us with his name,” Sandoval told NewsNation. “We are trying to contact with him, trying to make as much contact with him to cooperate with us so that we can ID him. And that way we can let everybody know his actual name and age.

According to KVEO, the incident happened at 8:30 a.m. in front of the Ozanam Center, which is a shelter for migrants and people experiencing homelessness. 

With no bench at the unmarked city bus stop, some of the victims were sitting on the curb when the driver hit them, surveillance video from the center showed. Shelter director Victor Maldonado said the SUV ran up the curb, flipped and continued moving for about 200 feet. Some people walking on the sidewalk about 30 feet from the main group were also hit, Maldonado said. Witnesses detained the driver as he tried to run away and held him until police arrived, he said.

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

Maldonado said the center had not received any threats before the crash, but did afterward.

“I’ve had a couple of people come by the gate and tell the security guard that the reason this happened was because of us,” Maldonado said.

The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate KVEO contributed to this report.