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Death toll in San Antonio 'human trafficking' truck rises to 10 Death toll in San Antonio 'human trafficking' truck rises to nine
(about 2 hours later)
A US official said on Sunday the death toll among people found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in the parking lot of a San Antonio Walmart had risen to 10. At least nine people died after being crammed into a sweltering tractor-trailer found parked outside a Walmart in the midsummer Texas heat, authorities said on Sunday as they described an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone wrong.
Thomas Homan, acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said two people had died in hospital. Eight dead bodies were found in the truck. The vehicle did not have a working air conditioning system despite blistering temperatures that topped 100F (37C), authorities said. The driver was arrested and nearly 20 others rescued from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many with extreme dehydration and heatstroke, officials said.
Based on initial interviews with survivors, Homan said, there may have been more than 100 people in the truck when it stopped. Thirty-eight were found inside. The rest are believed to have fled or been picked up. “We’re looking at a human-trafficking crime,” San Antonio police chief William McManus said, calling the event “a horrific tragedy.”
Homan said some survivors had identified themselves as Mexican nationals. Four of the passengers are believed to be between 10 and 17 years old, and at least one of them is in serious condition. The driver of the truck was arrested. Authorities were called to the San Antonio parking lot late on Saturday night or early Sunday and found eight dead inside the truck. A ninth victim died in hospital, said Liz Johnson, spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
After the discovery of the truck early on Sunday morning, 20 people in extremely critical or serious condition and eight with lesser injuries including heat stroke and dehydration were taken to hospitals. The victims “were very hot to the touch,” San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood said. “So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water.”
Store surveillance video showed vehicles had arrived and picked up other people from the tractor-trailer, police said. It was only the latest smuggling-by-truck operation to end in tragedy. In one of the worst cases on record in the US, 19 immigrants locked inside a stifling rig died in Victoria, Texas, in 2003.
“They were very hot to the touch,” said San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood, briefing journalists at the scene in video that authorities posted on social media. “So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water. It was a mass casualty situation for us. Based on initial interviews with survivors of the weekend tragedy, more than 100 people may have been packed into the back of the 18-wheeler at some point in its journey, ICE acting director Thomas Homan said. Thirty-nine were inside when rescuers arrived and the rest were believed to have escaped or hitched rides to their next destination, officials said.
“We are very fortunate that there weren’t 38 people who were locked inside of this vehicle dead.” We're looking at a human-trafficking crime, a horrible tragedy
San Antonio-based US attorney Richard Durbin said those responsible for the deaths were “ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo”, who he said were victims of a “smuggling venture gone horribly wrong”. Some of the survivors told authorities they were from Mexico, Homan said.
Federal investigators will work with San Antonio police to identify those responsible, Durbin said. Authorities did not say whether the rig was locked when they arrived, whether it was used to smuggle the occupants across the border into the US, or where it might have been headed. San Antonio is about 150 miles drive from the Mexican border.
We are very fortunate that there weren’t 38 people who were locked inside of this vehicle dead The temperature in San Antonio reached 101F (38C) on Saturday and didn’t dip below 90F (32C) until after 10pm. The trailer did not have a working air conditioning system, Hood said.
Late on Saturday night or early on Sunday morning, police said, a person from the truck approached a Walmart employee in a parking lot and asked for water. The employee gave the person the water and then called police. Federal prosecutors said James Mathew Bradley Jr, 60, from Clearwater, Florida, was taken into custody. No immediate charges were filed. The US Homeland Security Department stepped in to take the lead in the investigation.
“We’re looking at a human trafficking crime this evening,” San Antonio police chief William McManus said, adding that many of those inside the truck appeared to be adults in their 20s and 30s but there were also apparently two school-age children. He called the case “a horrific tragedy”. Many of the victims looked to be in their 20s and 30s, and there were also apparently two school-age children, the police chief said.
Police later said part of the federal Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, was taking the lead in the case and would issue all further updates. The tragedy came to light after a person from the truck approached a Walmart employee in the parking lot and asked for water late on Saturday or early on Sunday, McManus said.
On Sunday, the truck remained at the side and towards the back of the store. The scene was marked off with yellow crime-scene tape and by officers and patrol cars. The trailer of the 18-wheeler truck had an Iowa license plate. Neither it nor the truck’s cab appeared to have markings. The employee gave the person water and then called police, who found the dead and the desperate inside the rig. Some of those in the truck ran into the woods, leading to a search, McManus said.
The National Weather Service’s local office said the temperature in San Antonio hit 101F just before 5pm on Saturday and didn’t dip below 90F (32C) until after 10pm. Hours later, after daybreak, a helicopter hovered over the area and investigators were still gathering evidence from the tractor-trailer, which had an Iowa license plate and was registered to Pyle Transportation of Schaller, Iowa. A company official did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Other cases of human trafficking in the US have led to more deaths. In May 2003, 19 immigrants being transported from south Texas to Houston died inside a sweltering tractor-trailer. Investigators checked store surveillance video, which showed vehicles arriving and picking up people from the truck, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the driver in the 2003 case heard the immigrants begging and screaming for their lives as they were succumbing to the stifling heat inside his truck but refused to free them. The driver was re-sentenced in 2011 to nearly 34 years in prison, after a federal appeals court overturned the multiple life sentences he had received. “By any standard, the horrific crime uncovered last night ranks as a stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished,” Homan said in a statement.
US Border Patrol has reported at least four truck seizures this month in and around Laredo, a border city about 150 miles south-west of San Antonio. On 7 July, agents found 72 people crammed into a truck “with no means of escape”, the agency said. The people were from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador. In the May 2003 case, the immigrants were being taken from south Texas to Houston. Prosecutors said the driver heard them begging and screaming for their lives but refused to free them. The driver was sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison.
US Border Patrol has reported at least four truck seizures this month in and around Laredo, Texas. On 7 July, agents found 72 people crammed into a truck with no means of escape, the agency said. They were from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Authorities in Mexico have also made a number of such discoveries over the years.