A human smuggler allegedly led authorities on a high-speed chase that ended with a fatal crash Thursday in the same Texas city where the infamous migrant death truck passed through an immigration checkpoint earlier in the week.
A white Jeep Wrangler believed to be carrying migrants was being chased when it veered out of control and slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer in Encinal, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Four people were killed and three were critically injured, the DPS said, and a photo the agency posted on Twitter appeared to show at least one body in the rear of the Jeep.
The driver was among those killed and the survivors were flown by helicopters to local hospitals, Encinal police said.
Encinal cops who responded to a Border Patrol request for assistance saw the Jeep race off I-35 and smash into the tractor-trailer, which wasn’t moving, Police Chief Pablo Balboa III said in a prepared statement.
The photo posted by the DPS shows the wreckage in the parking lot of a Love’s truck stop located along an I-35 service road at the intersection with Route 44.
The vehicle crashed into a parked tractor-trailer near a gas station. Twitter/@TxDPSSouth
Border Patrol agents were chasing a vehicle allegedly carrying migrants until it crashed into a tractor-trailer in Encinal, Texas. KHOUOn Monday, a truck carrying 64 migrants in its sweltering trailer passed through the Border Patrol checkpoint in Encinal, with a surveillance camera allegedly catching Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, grinning as he leaned out of the driver’s window.
That truck was later abandoned in a remote area of San Antonio, with authorities finding “stacks of bodies” inside and a total of 48 dead.
The death toll now stands at 53 of the 64 migrants who were packed into the trailer, and Zamorano — who was reportedly “very high on meth” when nabbed nearby — faces a federal human smuggling charge that could result in the death penalty.
Police have confirmed the driver of the car was killed in the crash. KHOU
It is not known whether the crash victims were migrants. KHOUTexas Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly blamed the horrific incident on President Biden, saying Wednesday that the trailer wasn’t inspected in Encinal “because the Border Patrol does not have the resources to inspect all the trucks and as a result, the Border Patrol did not have the capability of saving those lives.”
Abbott also said he would “immediately” set up new, state-run checkpoints to inspect trucks for migrant-smuggling operations and deploy two “strike teams” to scour the highways for trucks carrying migrants and search out smugglers’ “stash houses.”
