BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The motive force of an SUV that crashed right into a crowd of individuals at a bus cease in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight, has been charged with manslaughter, police mentioned Monday.
Authorities imagine driver George Alvarez, 34, of Brownsville, misplaced management after operating a crimson mild Sunday morning and plowed right into a crowd of Venezuelans exterior a migrant middle. Authorities had been nonetheless investigating whether or not the crash was intentional.
Police Chief Chief Felix Sauceda mentioned Alvarez was charged with eight counts of manslaughter and 10 counts of aggravated assault with a lethal weapon.
The SUV ran a crimson mild, misplaced management, flipped on its facet and struck 18 folks, Sauceda mentioned at a information convention Monday morning. Six folks died on the scene and 12 folks had been critically injured, he mentioned. Officers have mentioned the dying toll later rose to eight.
Alvarez tried to flee, however was held down by a number of folks on the scene, he mentioned.
Victims struck by the automobile had been ready for the bus to return to downtown Brownsville after spending the night time on the in a single day shelter, mentioned Sister Norma Pimentel, government director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
Many of the victims had been Venezuelan males, shelter director Victor Maldonado mentioned. Brownsville has seen a surge of Venezuelan migrants over the past two weeks for unclear causes, authorities mentioned. On Thursday, 4,000 of about 6,000 migrants in Border Patrol custody in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley had been Venezuelan.
Police retrieved a blood pattern and despatched it to a Texas Division of Public Security lab to check for intoxicants.