May 5, 2007, 7:57PM
Immigrant dies as van hit by shots on I-59 North
Police say victim was among 15-20 illegal immigrants

By JENNIFER LEAHY

A man in a van filled with illegal immigrants was fatally shot Friday night on the Eastex Freeway, and the rest of the occupants drove away after dropping off the victim and three other men, police said.

Arturo Romero Villegas, 49, was one of 15 to 20 passengers in a white transport van with darkly tinted windows operated by Houston-based Transportes Tania. The van was on the feeder road north of Little York around 10:50 p.m. when Villegas asked the driver to pull over because something had "hit" him.

The driver pulled into the parking lot of La Tierra Prometida, a church at the corner of Darwin and Epson, one block east of the freeway.

Villegas' nephew and two other men got him out of the van. He died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the torso.

Harris County sheriff's deputies said that four to six shots were fired from a small, two-door, dark-colored car going north on U.S. 59 North.

"Several people said that at first they thought they were hearing firecrackers," said sheriff's spokesman Lt. John Martin.

Authorities said the passengers are illegal immigrants and were headed to Seattle for work. A description of the van, which now has bullet holes on the left side, has been distributed nationally. It is unknown if the shooting is related to human smuggling.

Luisa Deason, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Houston, said that the agency is not involved in the investigation at this time.

Transportes Tania could not be reached for comment.

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