7 dead, 6 hurt when vehicle slams into crowd near migrant center in Brownsville, Texas

© Veronica G. Cardenas, AP Migrants who recently crossed the border between the U.S. and Mexico are seen in Brownsville, Texas, on May 5, 2023.

Seven people were killed and least six more injured when a vehicle slammed into a crowd at a city bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, police said Sunday.

Brownsville police investigator Martin Sandoval said the crash happened at about 8:30 a.m. at a bus stop near a shelter for migrants. Brownsville is the easternmost border crossing into Mexico.

The cause of the crash was not immediately released. Sandoval told valleycentral.com that the driver was arrested on a charge of reckless driving and that more charges will likely be filed. The local media outlet said the crash occurred in front of the Ozanam Center, a shelter for migrants and homeless people.

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Luis Herrera told the outlet he and his friends were waiting to go to the airport when they were struck. He was injured and some of his friends were killed, he said.

Developments:

∙ Raúl Brindis, a Mexican radio show host, tweeted that authorities were working to confirm how many of the victims are migrants.

∙ Brindis said bystanders helped stop the driver and the driver was being tested for drugs and alcohol.

Surveillance video shows crash

Shelter director Victor Maldonado reviewed the shelter’s surveillance video and said people, mostly Venezuelen men, were sitting on the curb waiting for the bus.

“What we see in the video is that this SUV, a Range Rover, just ran the light that was about a hundred feet away and just went through the people who were sitting there in the bus stop,” Maldonado said. He said the SUV flipped after running up on the curb and continued moving for about 200 feet

Brownsville has seen influx of migrants in recent weeks

Brownsville issued a disaster declaration last month after 15,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, crossed over in a single week, overwhelming border security. In a normal week about 2,000 migrants attempt to cross at Brownsville, officials say.

“We’ve never seen these numbers before,” Sandoval said last week.

The surge in migrants comes as Title 42 comes to an end May 11. The pandemic-era policy allows the U.S. Border Patrol to send asylum-seekers from certain countries back to Mexico, and its expiration is expected to further increase the flow of immigrants.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 7 dead, 6 hurt when vehicle slams into crowd near migrant center in Brownsville, Texas