Border Patrol: ‘suspected illegal immigrant’ struck and killed while trying to cross freeway

Police said a pedestrian trying to cross the freeway at I-10 East near Porfirio Diaz fell down, possibly after being struck by a motorist who failed to stop and render aid.

The pedestrian accident was reported at about 10:12 p.m. Thursday night. Police closed the freeway for nearly eleven hours while they investigated the deadly accident.

“Another person attempted to carry (the pedestrian who fell) from the traffic lanes but oncoming traffic prevented that and the (pedestrian who previously fell) was struck by several vehicles,” police said in a news release.

A tractor-trailer was among the vehicles that ran over the pedestrian on the freeway.

ABC-7 called police, who clarified the other person who tried to drag the wounded pedestrian to safety was also pedestrian trying to cross the freeway.

An official with the U.S. Border Patrol tells ABC-7 the pedestrian killed was a “suspected illegal immigrant.” El Paso Police, the lead investigating agency, are not confirming that information.

“Border Patrol agents had apprehended two subjects who crossed the border in that area at approximately the same time, when they learned from a passing motorist that a person was lying on I-10,” a Border Patrol official told ABC-7, “Agents responded and found the individual.”

The Border Patrol official said “authorities believe the deceased man may have been with the two subjects when he crossed the border and was ultimately struck and
killed.”

“We saw everything. My family is traumatized,” Jennifer Marie Ponce-Flores stated on the KVIA ABC-7 Facebook page. “God rest their soul. So sad. What a traumatic end to a great night at the Chihuahuas game. My heart is broken.”

Ponce-Flores further stated her family drove up “to a dead body that had just been hit, blood and body parts everywhere.”

“It was as if we were in a bad nightmare,”she said.

If you witnessed the incident, call Special Traffic Investigators at (915) 212-4080.