SerpApi.Org
A Mexican man on vacation in Florida was killed by a truck as he tried to flee an encounter with immigration agents.
Colectivo Árbol, a farmworkers' advocacy group, identified him this week as Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran, a 28-year-old man from San Luis de La Paz in central Mexico. Duran was a father of two and visiting the U.S. on a valid tourist visa, according to Colectivo Árbol.
He had entered the country three weeks ago for vacation and was in Florida for only two days when he was struck and killed by a truck on July 14, Isaret Jeffers, a spokesperson for the group told the Miami Herald.
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“He was going to return this past Saturday. He had already bought a flight,” Jeffers said. “Now, unfortunately, if he is returning, his return is different.”
Witness recalls crash with tractor-trailer
The Florida Highway Patrol told the Herald that Duran had been running from an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations agents.
DHS has not released additional details since the incident last week.
A witness said he saw Duran run from agents after two unmarked SUVs parked on either side of his car at a gas station. He reached to the median of the highway and slipped, falling before picking himself up and stumbling onto the opposite lane of traffic.
“The traffic was coming pretty quick, and he just lost his footing and didn’t look where the traffic was coming,” Jose Rivera said. “He kept looking back.”
Rivera watched as Duran fell in front of a trailer-tractor. He said he knew instantly that he had died.
Mexican president launches probe into ICE-related deaths
Duran's death was the third involving immigration officials in just one week. He follows federal agents shooting and killing Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man in Houston on July 7, and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian man, in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13.
Neither of the men were the targets of ICE.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has opened an investigation into the deaths of at least 18 Mexican citizens since Trump started his second term in office. She said her administration is looking to file criminal charges.
“We express our deepest solidarity and sincere condolences to the family of the victims. Their pain is shared by the entire nation,” Sheinbaum said on July 14. “No fellow citizen should be unprotected when facing possible abuse from authority, disproportionate use of force, or human rights violations.”
