Eight people were found dead and 30 others injured, inside a semitrailer overnight in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas, in what officials are describing as a “human trafficking crime.”
At a press conference at the scene early Sunday morning, local police and fire officials said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also been called in to help investigate.
In addition to the dead, authorities said 17 people in the truck were taken to area hospitals in serious condition, and another 13 were transported with less severe injuries. Many suffered from heat stroke and dehydration. The group in the truck included adults in their 20s and 30s, and at least two young children.
The driver of the truck, who was not identified, was arrested and could federal and state charges.
Speaking to reporters, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said authorities were notified after midnight by a Walmart employee, who had been approached by someone who had been in the truck, asking for water.
“We’re looking at a human trafficking crime here,” McManus said.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood, who stood alongside McManus at the press conference, said firefighters arrived on the scene at 12:26 a.m., and began pulling the people out of the truck, which had no working air conditioning. In a phone interview with CNN later in the morning, Hood said all of the dead were adult males and that some may have suffered brain damage from the intense heat conditions inside the truck.
Authorities said they are investigating where the truck arrived from, and said they don’t yet know how long it had been parked. But surveillance video from the store showed that a number of vehicles entered the parking lot and “picked up lots of folks that were in that trailer that survived the trip,” McManus said.
Some of the people who had been in the truck ran into the woods, he said. The area was searched, and another attempt will be made in the morning.
While he called it a “horrific tragedy,” the police chief said the discovery “is not an isolated incident. This happens quite frequently … fortunately there are people who survived, but this happens all the time,” he said.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
But I thought all these ‘diverse’ people hated whitay. Why do they still risk life and limb to get to the land of the white devil people?
“This happens quite frequently”. So building the fence would not stop a wide open border crossing. If they can find out where this semi crossed, every border guard admitting it should be prosecuted and hung.
Agreed.
“San Antonio immigrant tragedy recalls deadly smuggling case that ended in Collin County”
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/07/23/san-antonio-immigrant-tragedy-recalls-deadly-smuggling-case-collin-county
“San Antonio immigrant deaths a reminder of dark history of human trafficking in Texas”
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/San-Antonio-immigrant-deaths-a-reminder-of-dark-11308538.php
“Border Patrol agents in Laredo have reported an increase in smuggling attempts in tractor-trailers in recent weeks, starting with the discovery of 44 people from Mexico and Guatemala discovered after police stopped an 18-wheeler on June 19 near one of the city’s international bridges.
On July 7, agents found 72 people from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador inside a locked trailer in the same part of town. The next day, they found 33 people from Mexico and Guatemala inside a trailer stopped at the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 35. In another incident last week, agents at the checkpoint found 16 people inside a locked trailer, according to a news release from Border Patrol.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-death-toll-in-horrific-human-11308288.php
I don’t know how many of you know what it’s like inside a freight trailer, but being inside one with no ventilation for long periods of time in this heat, is the worst kind of torture there is.
Yes, they were illegal, BUT, the animals who transported them came straight from Satin himself.
I have to sweep mine out occasionally, even with doors open, friggen torture.
Can you imagine the 30 people and what they were dealing with? Imagine vomit everywhere, piss everywhere, sweat everywhere, dead bodies everywhere, you want to die brother.
Agreed.
Mark, check out the two links I just posted (below). They give more details about the truck, trucking co. and the owner-operater that I would like you, in particular, to read. 🙁 👿
It just seems strange that names Daniel Ragsdale and Thomas Homan were kept away from the public after all this time and talk about immigration…the wall etc.etc. Does anyone recall those names in the press, t.v. or radio until now? We’re they ever on Fox or CNN or another network for an interview about how things were going?
Homeland security , Customs and Immigration were also called in to investigate.
They should really investigate their own ineptness.
Because they have proven again they are worthless government pieces of sht.
These are the agencies that are supposed to prevent these types of situations.
But now they just draw a chalk line around the bodies and document the crime scene
Hoping they can last long enough in their jobs to collect retirement and say fk it.
I guess we’re lucky the victims weren’t terrorists with micro nukes
Because a lot more people would be dead.
These worthless government fks.
You might as well have the three stooges running these departments.
This is EXACTLY what I’m seeing too
Fake news.
San Antonio local news reports:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-death-toll-in-horrific-human-11308288.php
http://www.kens5.com/news/local/semi-trailer-discovered-with-immigrants-in-san-antonio/458904209
“The driver of the vehicle, 60-year-old James M. Bradley Jr. of Florida, was booked into a federal jail in San Antonio on Sunday morning for his alleged role in what U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin called “an alien smuggling venture gone horribly wrong.”
“The black, red and white truck had a logo of Pyle Transportation on it.
Mike Pyle and Tom Colton of the company said Bradley is an owner-operator who owns his own semi but is authorized to haul under the Pyle name.
‘It’s our trailer, but it’s his truck,’ Pyle said.
Bradley was not authorized to be hauling anything in Texas when the immigrants were discovered, Pyle and Colton said.”