Tragic Chase Turns Fatal: What Happened on a Florida Highway?

A Mexican national was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while attempting to flee from ICE officers across a busy Florida highway, officials said. 

The gruesome accident occurred after the 28-year-old man and three others had a run-in with immigration agents around 7 a.m. in St. Johns, according to Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Dylan Bryan. 

The four were approached by agents while stopped inside the parking lot of a gas station in St. Augustine, Florida, Bryan said. 

The crew attempted to flee from ICE, with the unidentified Mexican migrant sprinting across State Road 16 — where he was soon after hit by the truck, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. 

The driver who struck the man tried to give him medical attention, but he was unable to be saved, Bryan said. 

DHS said in a brief statement that officers were in the area conducting an operation, and identified the man killed as a “Mexican national,” but no information was available about his immigration status.

Florida Highway Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations are probing the incident, according to DHS, and that they will “provide an update when available.”

The fatal crash is the most recent in a series of deaths involving the immigration agency. 

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, was shot and killed by ICE agents in Houston, Texas last week after DHS said he tried to run over agents with his car, a claim that’s been hotly contested by activists. 

A Colombian national, identified by neighbors as 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, was also gunned down by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine on Monday.