A car chase between border patrol vehicles and an SUV carrying 14 people resulted in a car crash in Big Wells, Texas on Sunday. According to News 4 in San Antonio, 12 of the people inside the car were ejected during the crash and four were pronounced dead at the scene. A fifth person died at a hospital.
Dimmit County Sheriff Marion Boyd told the outlet five passengers were rushed to San Antonio Military Medical Center for emergency care while another four were transported to a different local medical facility. Of those five included the driver, who is reportedly a United States citizen. The passenger in the front seat is reportedly in police custody.
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In a later interview, Boyd said the car reached 100 miles per hour before the driver lost control. The car then swerved to the gravel on the side of the road and flipped multiple times when the driver tried to get the car back on the road.
Boyd said the pursuit was the result of “good police work.”
“The vehicle ran off the road and caught gravel and then tried to recorrect and then caused the vehicle to turn over several times,” Boyd said.
The sheriff also gave his support for a border wall along the border of the United States and Mexico.
“We’ve seen this many, many times, in not only this county but other counties along the border,” Boyd said. “It’s a problem.”
“This is a perfect example of why our borders need to be secure,” he added, claiming his deputies often find themselves chasing people suspected of smuggling drugs and undocumented immigrants across the border.
“If it can be built, I think it needs to be built. But along with that, there needs to be cameras,” Boyd added. There needs to be sensors.”
He did not specify where the passengers were from, but said most migrants traveling in the area (approximately 50 miles from the border) were either from Mexico or Central America.
CNN reports they reached out to Yolanda Choates, a spokeswoman for US Customs and Border Protection, but she directed all comments back to the sheriff’s department.
Photo: Facebook / @davidcaltabianotv
