Fatal encounter during ICE operation under investigation
A 28-year-old man died Tuesday morning after he ran from an encounter with federal immigration agents at a gas station in St. Augustine, Florida, and was struck by a tractor-trailer on a busy highway, authorities said.
The man was among four occupants of a vehicle that stopped in the parking lot of a convenience store on a busy road in St. Augustine — about 35 miles south of Jacksonville — before 7 a.m., according to Master Sgt. Dylan Bryan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a component of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had an “encounter” with the four men, Bryan said. The statement did not specify what prompted the encounter or whether the man who died was the intended target of an enforcement action. As the four men fled on foot, one of them ran into traffic and was struck by a tractor-trailer.
“The pedestrian was struck by the tractor trailer in the right lane and sustained fatal injuries on scene,” Bryan said in a statement. “The tractor trailer immediately stopped and attempted to render aid to the victim.”
The driver of the semi stopped and tried to help, but the man died at the scene, Bryan said. The Florida Highway Patrol referred all further questions to ICE. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment, according to The Guardian.
It is not known whether the other three men who fled were apprehended or remain at large. The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, also referred questions to ICE, the report said. An image from the crash scene showed a Border Patrol vehicle present, and a homeland security source told The Guardian that Border Patrol officials may also have been at the scene.
The New York Times first reported the death Tuesday afternoon.