7 dead after SUV crashes into bus stop near Texas migrant shelter

Seven people were killed and up to six injured Sunday after being hit by a vehicle while waiting at a city bus stop outside a migrant shelter in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, police said.

Brownsville police investigator Martin Sandoval said the crash happened around 8:30 a.m. local time.

Shelter director Victor Maldonado of the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center said he reviewed the shelter’s surveillance video on Sunday morning after receiving a call about the accident.

The city bus stop is across the street from the shelter and is unmarked. There were no benches, and people waiting there sat on the side of the road, Maldonado said. He said most of the victims were Venezuelan men.

“What we see in the video is this SUV, a Range Rover, just running the lights about 100 meters away and just passing the people sitting at the bus stop,” Maldonado said.

He said the SUV stopped after running on the side of the road and continued moving for about 60 meters. Several people walking on the sidewalk about nine meters from the main group were also hit, Maldonado said.

The Ozanam shelter is the only overnight shelter in the city of Brownsville and manages the release of thousands of migrants from federal custody. Brownsville has long been a migration hub on the US-Mexico border, and has been a key location for ending the pandemic-era border restrictions known as Title 42.

Sandoval told KRGV-TV that authorities are investigating whether the crash was intentional or an accident. They also tried the driver, who was arrested at the scene by witnesses, for being drunk.

Maldonado said the center did not receive any threats before the crash, but they did.

“I had several people come to the gate and tell the security guard that it happened because of us,” Maldonado said.

The shelter can accommodate 250, but many arrive on the same day. In recent weeks, an increase in border crossings has prompted the city to declare an emergency as local, state and federal resources coordinate enforcement and humanitarian responses.

“In the last two months, we’ve had 250 to 380 a day,” Maldonado said.

While the shelter offers migrants transport during the week, they are also free to use public transport in the city.
“Some of them left for the bus station, because they were leaving for their destination,” said the director.