Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 10:50 pm

BY MARK REAGAN The Brownsville Herald

Bright-orange spray paint marks left by police on a busy Brownsville street Tuesday morning showed where a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled over Monday night while carrying eight people. Two teens were ejected and killed.

Broken glass, a shoe, a displaced headlight, an oak tree snapped at the trunk, and what appears to be blood told the story of a violent roll-over crash that left a 13-year-old male and 19-year-old Arturo Venegas dead.

The 13-year-old died at the scene and Venegas died later at Valley Regional Medical Center.

Authorities are still looking for the driver — who they suspect was trying to elude Border Patrol agents — and one other person who fled the scene.

The accident happened around 10:45 p.m. Monday on the 100 block of FM 802, near railroad tracks.

“He (the driver) was driving at a high rate of speed and lost control of the vehicle,” Brownsville police spokesman Billy Killebrew said Tuesday morning.

Three other occupants were also injured and taken to local hospitals, but the injuries were not serious, Killebrew said.

Information gathered from the police department’s investigation showed that the Jeep’s occupants were undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Honduras, Killebrew said in a press release.

The Jeep had Mexican license plates, police said.

The police department is investigating the crash.

“Homeland Security Investigation, special agents in Harlingen will be leading the investigation, with the assistance of Brownsville Police Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol to pursue leads in an attempt to identify the driver and additional members of the alien smuggling organization responsible for this botched human smuggling event,” Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said.

The Brownsville Police Department can be reached at 956-548-7060, and Border Patrol and HSI can be reached at 1-800-863-9382.

A smuggling attempt

Monday night, U.S. Border Patrol agents stationed in Brownsville were working off of information about an SUV loading up with suspected undocumented immigrants just south of Military Highway, a Border Patrol spokesman said.

“The information was an SUV was loading up with immigrants and when Border Patrol arrived they observed it leaving at a high rate of speed with its lights off, but were unable to catch up with it,” Border Patrol spokesman Enrique Mendiola said Tuesday afternoon.

When agents did reach it on the 100 block of FM 802, the vehicle had rolled over and one person was already dead. Mendiola said agents immediately contacted EMS and the police department.

“It was determined then that two people did flee the scene,” he said, adding that one person at the scene was already dead and five others were transported to a local hospital where one more of the van’s occupants died.

Mendiola said the agency is not confirming the names, ages or nationalities of the people involved in the crash.

“We continue to ask the community for help. If there are any witnesses, come forward,” he said.

An unusual crash

Monday night’s crash is just the latest in a spate of fatal crashes involving undocumented immigrants, but it’s the first in recent memory in Brownsville.

“This isn’t something we’ve seen in the recent past in Brownsville,” Mendiola said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s the first in a while that we’ve seen down here in this area.”

Most recently, The Associated Press reported that a 24-year-old man was killed and seven were injured after the driver of a truck carrying a dozen suspected undocumented immigrants rolled as authorities tried to pull it over near Premont, which is 60 miles southwest of Corpus Christi.

Texas Department of Public Safety Cpl. Charlie Ramirez told the AP the driver fled on foot.

A little closer to home, Hidalgo County has been the scene of several fatal accidents involving vehicles that were carrying undocumented immigrants, including one where a 15-year-old minor was charged with nine counts of murder and 17 counts of human smuggling.

On April 9, Border Patrol tried to stop a van driving on Greene Road in Palmview, but it rolled over and skidded, throwing men and women from it onto the frontage road of Expressway 83, west of the Minnesota Road intersection. Nine people died.

In September, The Monitor reported that during a detention hearing for the 15-year-old driver, a Palmview resident named Albino Villarreal testified that a Border Patrol agent bumped the van during the pursuit, causing it to fishtail.

Most recently in Hidalgo County, four people died and seven were injured when the driver of a white minivan packed with undocumented immigrants crashed into a sugarcane field near Donna.

Mendiola said that smugglers often buy cheap cars that they fill with either undocumented immigrants, or drugs, and then drive fast to avoid law enforcement.

“These people are putting their lives in the hands of these ruthless smugglers,” Mendiola said. “And the American dream turns into the American nightmare for these folks.”


GET INVOLVED

The Brownsville Police Department is asking any witnesses to a Monday night crash that left two teenagers dead to call 956-548-7060. A spokesman said they are still looking for two people, including the driver. The U.S. Border Patrol is also looking for the same two people and asked that any witnesses call 1-800-863-9382.

AT A GLANCE

A breakdown of recent fatal crashes involving undocumented immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas:

On Oct. 10 in Premont, Texas, which is 60 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, a 24-year-old man was killed and seven others were injured when the driver of a truck loaded with a dozen suspected undocumented immigrants rolled as authorities tried to pull it over, according to The Associated Press.
On Oct. 7 near Donna, four people died and seven were injured when the driver of a white minivan packed with undocumented immigrants crashed into a sugarcane field, according to The Monitor.
On April 10, nine undocumented immigrants were killed when a van driven by a 15-year-old overturned in Palmview. Eighteen people were packed into the van. The teen driver is charged with nine counts of murder and 17 counts of human smuggling. A witness at his detention hearing on Sept. 18 testified that Border Patrol bumped the van, causing it to rollover, according to The Monitor.
On April 9, a roll-over in La Joya claimed the life of one undocumented immigrant and injured 17 others, according to The Monitor.

Investigators: Fleeing Jeep rolls over in fatal crash - Brownsville Herald: Local News