A 24-year old Honduran national was struck and killed on a highway as he tried to escape ICE agents who stopped his vehicle, officials said.<\/p>\n
Jose Castro-Rivera was in a vehicle that was stopped on I-264 eastbound in Virginia around 11 a.m. local time on Thursday, according to Virginia State Police, who were responding to a report of a vehicle-pedestrian crash at the Military Highway interchange.<\/p>\n
When they arrived, troopers found an adult male who had been hit by a 2002 Ford pickup truck. The man was identified as Rivera, and was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n
A preliminary investigation by VSP found that he was “fleeing from a pursuit initiated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when he exited his vehicle and attempted to cross the interstate.”<\/p>\n
Officials from VSP were not involved in the pursuit but are investigating the pedestrian crash, which remains under investigation.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said ICE stopped the vehicle in which the Honduran national was traveling as “part of a targeted, intelligence-based immigration enforcement operation.”<\/p>\n
“Upon determining that the occupants were in the United States illegally, officers began detaining the occupants of the targeted vehicle. However, one of the vehicle’s occupants, Jose Castro-Rivera, resisted heavily and fled the scene onto a busy highway,\u00a0 creating a significant safety risk to himself and the general public,” the agency said. “Unfortunately, a passing vehicle struck Castro-Rivera.”<\/p>\n
One of the ICE officers gave Castro-Rivera CPR before he died, the DHS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“The officer then informed the three detained aliens that their friend had deceased,” the DHS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Federal crackdowns have been occurring nationwide<\/a> in recent weeks.<\/p>\n