A 24-year old Honduran national was struck and killed on a highway as he tried to escape ICE agents who stopped his vehicle, officials said.
Jose Castro-Rivera was in a vehicle that was stopped on I-264 eastbound in Virginia around 11 a.m. local time on Thursday, according to Virginia State Police, who were responding to a report of a vehicle-pedestrian crash at the Military Highway interchange.
When they arrived, troopers found an adult male who had been hit by a 2002 Ford pickup truck. The man was identified as Rivera, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A preliminary investigation by VSP found that he was “fleeing from a pursuit initiated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when he exited his vehicle and attempted to cross the interstate.”
Officials from VSP were not involved in the pursuit but are investigating the pedestrian crash, which remains under investigation.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said ICE stopped the vehicle in which the Honduran national was traveling as “part of a targeted, intelligence-based immigration enforcement operation.”
“Upon determining that the occupants were in the United States illegally, officers began detaining the occupants of the targeted vehicle. However, one of the vehicle’s occupants, Jose Castro-Rivera, resisted heavily and fled the scene onto a busy highway, creating a significant safety risk to himself and the general public,” the agency said. “Unfortunately, a passing vehicle struck Castro-Rivera.”
One of the ICE officers gave Castro-Rivera CPR before he died, the DHS spokesperson said.
“The officer then informed the three detained aliens that their friend had deceased,” the DHS spokesperson said.
Federal crackdowns have been occurring nationwide in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, nine immigrants from Africa suspected of being in the country illegally were taken into custody by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents during what DHS called a “targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street in New York City focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.”
ICE deported about 140 individuals back to Venezuela in its latest removal flight on Oct. 15.
