Shocking video footage shows the moment an SUV plowed into a crowded bus stop in a Texas border town, killing several people.
Filmed early Sunday, the clip was released by a local congressman hours after the crash – with the driver now in custody and the death toll now reported at eight.
The snippet starts seconds before the moment of impact – with a group of at least 17 seen waiting at the stop outside a shelter that had been housing homeless migrants.
Several are seen sitting on the curb in front of the stop, while several stand and exchange pleasantries while presumably waiting for a bus.
Suddenly, the unnamed motorist comes into frame – hurtling toward the group at frightening speeds. The footage then shows the crowd being completely obliterated by the more than a two-and-half ton vehicle, which cops said had run a red light.
As of Monday morning, it is not known if the strike was intentional – however, witnesses who survived the strike claimed the driver, identified as an ‘uncooperative’ Hispanic male by cops, hurled profanities at the group as he raced toward them.
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Shocking video footage shows the moment an SUV plowed into a crowded bus stop in a Texas border town, killing eight people and injuring several more
Police arrested the suspect who was driving the car, but have yet to name him. He has been ‘uncooperative’ with investigators, cops said Sunday as the continue to investigate
‘A woman in a white car came by and told us to move, and another car behind her came toward us at full speed, yelling profanities at us,’ the unnamed man who was at the bus stop but survived told CBS News, in an interview translated from Spanish.
He added it was the second car that ‘ran us over.’
It is unclear from the newly released footage to confirm the man’s account – though a white car can be seen in the shot snippet driving a few feet in front of the suspect’s car, in the adjacent lane.
Compounding people’s suspicions that the strike was premeditated is the fact tit happened three days before a Trump-era immigration restriction making it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the US is set to expire.
Dubbed Title 42, the pandemic-era policy allowed border patrol agents to swiftly return migrants to their home countries – something particularly relevant to residents of the Southern Texas city, which is 95 percent Hispanic and Latino.
Set less than two miles from the Mexican border, the town is set to see a rise in immigration in the coming weeks, once the Trump-era restrictions are lifted.
Cops in the border city, however, have stopped short of saying the crash was intentional, with a Brownsville police spokesperson only confirming the suspect – who was filmed being arrested without a shirt after the incident – was Hispanic.
The Ozanam center is a homeless shelter that serves individuals and families in the area – and because it sits right on the US-Mexico border, many of its clients are migrants.
Shelter director Victor Maldonado said the center has not received any threats in the past, though it has started to in the aftermath of the crash.
‘I’ve had a couple of people come by the gate and tell the security guard that the reason that this happened was because of us,’ he said.
Maldonado added that most of the men who were struck were Venezuelan men – though it is unclear how many of the victims were migrants.
The Ozanam center is a homeless shelter that serves individuals and families in the area – and because it sits right on the US-Mexico border, many of its clients are migrants
The crash comes as the city of Brownsville deals with an influx of migrants.
Last month, the city issued a disaster declaration after 15,000 migrants — mostly from Venezuela — crossed over in a single week, overwhelming border security.
In a normal week, only about 2,000 migrants attempt to cross at Brownsville.
Tensions flared amid the uptick in migration last month, when some tents housing the immigrants were set ablaze and destroyed.
Some migrants blamed cartel-backed gangs, but a government official suggested the fires may have been set by a group of frustrated migrants.
The situation may also get worse in the coming week, with the end of Title 42 on Thursday.
The COVID-era policy allowed border agents to send migrants back to Mexico.