SUV driver hits crowd at Texas bus stop near border; 7 dead

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — An SUV slammed into a crowd Sunday, killing at least seven people and injuring at least 10 who were waiting at a bus stop outside a migrant shelter in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, police said.

Shelter director Victor Maldonado of the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center said he reviewed the shelter’s surveillance video Sunday morning after receiving a call about the crash.

“What we see in the video is that this SUV, a Range Rover, just ran the light that was about 100 feet (30 meters) away and just went through the people who were sitting there in the bus stop,” Maldonado said.

Victims struck by the vehicle were waiting for the bus to return to downtown Brownsville after having spent the night at the overnight shelter, said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

The city bus stop is across the street from the shelter and is not marked. There is no bench, and people waiting there were sitting along the curb, Maldonado said. He said most of the victims were Venezuelan men.

Brownsville has seen a surge of Venezuelan migrants over the last two weeks for unclear reasons, authorities said. On Thursday, 4,000 of about 6,000 migrants in Border Patrol custody in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley were Venezuelan.

Maldonado said the SUV flipped after running up on the curb and continued moving for about 200 feet (60 meters). Some people walking on the sidewalk about 30 feet (9 meters) from the main group were also hit, Maldonado said. Witnesses detained the driver as he tried to run away and held him until police arrived, he said.

Brownsville police investigator Martin Sandoval said the crash happened about 8:30 a.m. and that police did not know whether the driver intentionally hit people.