Police announced Monday that the driver of the SUV that slammed into a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight people, has been charged with manslaughter as they try to determine whether the collision was intentional.
The driver, George Alvarez, 34, of Brownsville, is thought to have lost control after running a red light early on Sunday and crashed into a group of Venezuelans in front of a migrant facility.
Alvarez is accused of eight counts of manslaughter and ten charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to Police Chief Felix Sauceda.
Sauceda said there was no apparent motivation, but officials were awaiting toxicology testing to establish whether Alvarez was drunk.
When the SUV ran a red light, it lost control, tipped over, and hit 18 people, according to Sauceda, who spoke at a news conference on Monday, AP News reported.
According to him, there were six fatalities and 12 individuals with serious injuries at the scene. The death toll then increased, according to officials, to eight.
Alvarez attempted to flee but was restrained by many witnesses. The amount of his bail was $3.6 million.
After spending the night at the overnight shelter, the victims hit by the car were waiting for the bus to take them back to downtown Brownsville, according to Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
According to Victor Maldonado, director of the shelter, most of the victims were male Venezuelans.
For unknown reasons, there has been an increase in Venezuelan migrants in Brownsville during the past two weeks, according to police.
Out of the 6,000 or so migrants held by Border Patrol in Texas' Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, 4,000 were Venezuelan.
A blood sample was taken by the police and forwarded to a lab run by the Texas Department of Public Safety to be tested for intoxicants.
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