{"id":38156,"date":"2023-05-08T17:30:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T17:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/texas-driver-charged-with\/"},"modified":"2023-05-08T17:33:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T17:33:37","slug":"texas-driver-charged-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/texas-driver-charged-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas driver charged with manslaughter after Brownsville crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Brendan O&#8217;Brien and Tyler Clifford<\/p>\n<p>(Reuters) &#8211;     A Texas man accused of mowing down a group of pedestrians with his SUV near a Brownsville homeless shelter that attends to migrants has been charged with eight counts of manslaughter, police said on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda said at a press conference that the driver, identified as George Alvarez, 34, ran a red light, lost control of his vehicle, and hit 18 people as the SUV flipped it on its side.<\/p>\n<p>The driver attempted to flee the scene after impact but was held down by several bystanders, Sauceda said. He said that investigators were waiting for toxicology reports on Alvarez.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a question from a reporter, Sauceda said authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the crash was intentional.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators are working to identify the victims, some of whom were Venezuelan migrants, the chief said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It has been a very tiresome process but we are deeply committed to doing and accomplishing,&#8221; Sauceda said, adding that his department was working with the Venezuelan government and other embassies. <\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Monday, the Venezuelan government called for an investigation into whether it was a crime of hate and xenophobia.<\/p>\n<p>The city of Brownsville, on the border with Mexico, is one of the places expecting an influx of migrants when COVID-era restrictions expire on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>Alvarez, who was also charged with 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, has an extensive criminal history, the chief said. Alvarez was being held on $3.6 million bail.<\/p>\n<p>Reuters could not immediately determine whether Alvarez had retained a lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>A video circulating online purporting to show the crash shows a speeding SUV plowing into a row of people sitting on the curb. A second video of the aftermath appears to show victims lying on the ground, some bloodied and writhing, while others lay motionless. <\/p>\n<p>Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the videos.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Brendan O&#8217;Brien in Chicago and Tyler Clifford in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O&#8217;Brien)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/texas-driver-charged-with\/file-photo-car-runs-into-pedestrians-in-brownsville\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportDomesticNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ470I3-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ470I3-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Brendan O&#8217;Brien and Tyler Clifford (Reuters) &#8211; A Texas man accused of mowing down a group of pedestrians with his SUV near a Brownsville homeless shelter that attends to migrants has been charged with eight counts of manslaughter, police said on Monday. Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda said at a press conference that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":38157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1214],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-38156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-domestic","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportDomesticNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ470I3-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38245,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38156\/revisions\/38245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}