Eight Dead After Car Strikes Crowd in Texas

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Facts

  • A driver ran into pedestrians standing at a bus stop outside a migrant shelter in southern Texas on Sunday, killing at least eight people and injuring ten, in an incident that police are investigating as being possibly intentional.1
  • A spokesperson for the Brownsville Police Department said on Monday that 34-year-old George Alvarez has been charged with 8 counts of manslaughter and 10 counts of aggravated assault.2
  • The suspect was detained at the scene by witnesses. Alvarez, who was also injured in the crash was previously charged with reckless driving in an unrelated incident.2
  • Investigators are still determining if the crash was an accident or intentional. Witnesses have described seeing the driver ignore a red light and run over the people waiting at the bus stop.3
  • The deadly wreck occurred in Brownsville Texas, at a bus stop across the street from the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, which is a non-profit homeless shelter helping to house migrants. The victims are all believed to be Venezuelan migrants who recently arrived at the shelter.3
  • The deadly crash in Brownsville, a border city, comes amidst a surge in migrants crossing into the US from Mexico as the COVID-era Title 42 immigration law expires Thursday.4

Sources: 1CBS, 2Axios, 3CNN, and 4NBC.

Narratives

  • Left narrative, as provided by NPR Online News. This intentional act of violence against migrants comes amidst a discourse of intolerance in anticipation of the expiration of Title 42. No one, no matter their immigration status deserves to be the victim of a violent crime.
  • Right narrative, as provided by Breitbart. While a tragic incident, there is no evidence that this crash was intentional or politically motivated. Brownsville is in a state of emergency because of an extreme influx of migrants in recent weeks. The fact that those who died were migrants could just be a tragic consequence of the pandemonium at the border.