4 days ago
Man fleeing ICE at California Home Depot struck and killed by vehicle on freeway
A man fleeing from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at a California Home Depot was killed after he fled into a busy highway.
Police in Monrovia were alerted about an ICE raid at the Home Depot on Mountain Avenue at around 9.45am on Thursday, and just five minutes later they received a call about a man getting struck by a vehicle on the 210 Freeway, Fox 11 reports.
The man had jumped a concrete wall shortly after the agents arrived at the scene, fled on foot and entered the freeway, crossing Evergreen Avenue and running onto eastbound lanes, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Motorist Vincent Enriquez said he saw the unidentified man soon after he was struck by an oncoming vehicle and at the time he was still alive and 'still moving.'
But disturbing footage from the scene that was shared online showed a man standing in the road hitchhiking as another person could be seen lying on the ground motionless.
The victim was then sent to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, 13 people were detained from the raid at the Home Depot, Palmira Figueroa, the director of communications for National Day Laborer Organizing Network told the LA Times.
One of the day laborers who visits the store every day in search of work said the morning started like any other - that is until he heard people start to yell 'La migra, corre!' or 'Immigration, run!'
The laborer, who declined to give his name for security reasons, started to record the situation on his phone.
He was able to get away, he said, but 'felt powerless' that he could not help his friends.
'It feels horrible - I couldn't do anything for them other than record what was happening,' the migrant said.
ICE activity in the city of Monrovia has since ceased, City Manager Dylan Feik said, adding that the city 'has not received any communication or information from ICE.'
But immigration advocates now blame ICE officials for the unidentified victim's death.
'We hold the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security and the Home Depot responsible for his death, and they must be held accountable,' said Ron Gochez, a member of Union del Barrio, an immigrant rights group that patrols neighborhoods to alert residents of immigration sweeps.
'This is a painful reminder for us that we must continue to boycott the Home Depot due to their complicity to the ICE raids at their stores,' he added.
'The Home Depot and the agents that chased the man have blood on their hands.'
The incident marks the second ICE-related death in California.
Just last month, Jaime Alanís fell 30 feet off a building and broke his neck and skull at Glass House Farms in Camarillo.
'The family is destroyed, it was something very hard that happened to the family and we just want answers, we're just destroyed,' Juan Duran, Jaime's brother-in-law, told Fox 11 through a translator back on August 6.
But Department of Homeland Security officials have since said Alanis was not among the migrants being pursued in the raid on the cannabis farm and federal agents had called him a medevac.
