After a man drove into a group of people in a border town in the southern United States with eight dead, the background to the incident is still unclear. The driver was charged with manslaughter, among other things, said a representative in Brownsville, Texas on Monday morning (local time). Investigators assume that the 34-year-old first ran a red light and then lost control of his vehicle. Nevertheless, the police did not want to finally rule out that the driver intentionally steered his car into the group. The investigation is ongoing, the spokesman said.
The man had crashed into a group of people with an off-road vehicle on Sunday. Eight people died and several others were injured. The driver tried to flee but was stopped, police said. According to US media, the deadly incident happened near a migrant shelter. They would have waited at a bus stop. The police did not say whether there was a connection between the incident and the place where it happened. The suspected driver who was arrested did not cooperate with the police, it was initially said. It said he had a number of previous convictions.
Some of the dead are said to have been Venezuelan migrants. The Venezuelan government regrets the incident and calls for a full investigation, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said. The police spokesman made it clear on Monday that the authorities were in contact with the government in Venezuela and other embassies. He did not give any details about the origin of the victims.
Brownsville is right on the border with Mexico. US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas visited the city on Friday and warned migrants against crossing the border illegally. The situation on the US-Mexico southern border has long been tense amid large numbers of migrants from Central and South America trying to cross into the United States.
