Person fleeing immigration agents on foot killed by truck

July 15 (UPI) — A person fleeing federal immigration agents was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer truck in Florida, marking the third death this week involving immigration law enforcement officers.

The incident occurred at around 6:42 a.m. EDT Tuesday on State Road 16 in St. Johns County, Florida Highway Patrol Master Sgt. Dylan Bryan told UPI in an emailed statement.

According to Bryan, preliminary information indicates that Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents encountered four occupants of a vehicle in the parking lot of a gas station and convenience store.

During the encounter, the four people fled on foot, with one running across State Road 16 and into the path of a tractor-trailer, which struck and killed the pedestrian.

Bryan said the FHP is investigating the traffic fatality.

Specifics about the encounter that preceded the death were not immediately clear.

The unidentified victim is the third person to die following interactions with federal immigration officers in a week, and at least the 10th during President Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration campaign of mblock arrests and deportations.

ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 53, in Houston on July 7 and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, 26, in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday.

Both shootings were under investigation.

The fatal shootings have renewed anger and criticism of Trump’s immigration policies and the immigration law enforcement agencies, with some calling for the abolition of ICE.

“This tragedy is the direct result of an out-of-control agency terrorizing our communities and our state,” State Rep. Angie Nixon said in a recorded statement.

“Whether it’s ICE agents gunning down a father in the streets of Houston, shooting a young man in Maine or conducting operations right here in northeast Florida that result in a deadly crash, the outcome is the same: fear, chaos and death. This is why I’m calling to abolish ICE.”