At least seven people were killed and another six injured after an SUV swerved off the road into a crowd of people in front of a migrant and homeless shelter in Brownsville, Texas on Sunday. Investigators believe the crash may have been intentional and the driver has been arrested.
The Ozanam Center is the only overnight shelter in Brownsville, Texas, a city of about 186,000 people that sits along the Mexican-Texas border. The Ozanam Center manages thousands of migrants who are released from federal custody and provides them with free transportation.
The shelter director Victor Maldonado told US Media that the surveillance footage shows the Range Rover SUV run a red light that was about 100 feet away from where the crowd was sitting. The SUV then plows into the crowd according to Maldonado.
“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”
The driver has been booked on charges of reckless driving but more charges are expected to come as the investigation continues, according to Police Lieutenant Martin Sandoval.
The seven dead died at the scene, while others were rushed to a local hospital. The majority of the victims were Venezuelan men, according to Maldonado.
Maldonado said that over the past month, the shelter has been receiving “250 to 380” released migrants a day, though the shelter can only hold 250. He says many come through the shelter and leave the same day.
“Some of them were on the way to the bus station, because they were on their way to their destination,” Maldonado told the Associated Press.
The alleged attack comes just one day after a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas.