Local police said they were treating the incident as an accident, although a witness said the driver shouted insults at the group before speeding away.
Police cars at the scene of an incident in Brownsville, Texas on May 7, 2023. Photo: AFP
A gray SUV “ran a red light and ran over several people” around 8:30 a.m. Sunday in Brownsville, a border city in the southernmost part of Texas, said local police spokesman Martin Sandoval. He said seven people were killed and nearly 10 others were injured.
Witness Luis Herrera, who suffered an arm injury in the incident, said the crash was “unexpected”. The 36-year-old Venezuelan migrant added: “The killer… gestured at us, insulted us”. He then described the driver accelerating the vehicle at full speed.
The driver, who Sandoval said was also taken to the hospital, was detained by witnesses until police arrived. He has now been charged with reckless driving.
Authorities have opened an investigation into whether the fatal crash was an accident or deliberate. "We are looking into it," Sandoval said.
The victims were among about 25 people waiting at the bus stop, according to Victor Maldonado, director of the Ozanam Center, a homeless shelter across the street from the crash.
The group, which Maldonado said were all Venezuelans, had just had breakfast at the establishment and described a gruesome scene, with body parts left along the road. Witnesses were “really shocked. It was pretty intense,” he said.
The homeless center is open 24 hours a day, Maldonado said, because “it houses people from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, China, Ukraine — and a lot of Venezuelans,” he added.
The incident came just a day after a gunman killed at least eight people at a shopping mall, also in Texas, in the latest mass shooting to rock the United States.
Huy Hoang (according to AFP, CNA)
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