A Mexican national killed in Florida while running from Immigration and Customs Enforcement was a tourist with a valid visa, according to several reports.
Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, a 28-year-old from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, has been identified as the man fatally hit by a tractor-trailer in St. Augustine last Tuesday.
The New York Times and the Miami Herald published the man’s identity, along with other details about his trip, given to them by the Orlando-based farmworker non-profit Colectivo Árbol, which is hosting Coronilla Durán’s wife, Jessica Alamilla.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told The Independent that its officers conducted an operation near St. Johns, Florida, about a 30-minute drive northwest of St Augustine, last Tuesday.
Without providing details about the encounter, the spokesperson said Florida Highway Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations have launched a probe into “an incident resulting in the death of a Mexican national.”
“We will provide an update when available,” the spokesperson added, without naming the person.
According to Coronilla Durán’s wife, he was in the U.S. on a valid tourist visa for three weeks with friends, first visiting Georgia, then Florida, Isaret Jeffers, a spokesperson for Colectivo Árbol, said.
“He was going to return this past Saturday. He had already bought a flight,” Jeffers told the Herald. “Now, unfortunately, if he is returning, his return is different.”
Coronilla Durán was trying to flee an encounter with agents from ICE and Homeland Security Investigations at a Wawa gas station when he ran into a busy road and was struck by the truck, according to the Times.
Truck driver Jose Rivera, who witnessed the incident, told the Herald that when Coronilla Durán reached the median of the road, he slipped and fell. He then picked himself up but stumbled onto the other lane of traffic, according to Rivera.
“The traffic was coming pretty quick, and he just lost his footing and didn’t look where the traffic was coming,” Rivera said.
Coronilla Durán was a father of two who had been married to Alamilla for a decade. Alamilla arrived in the U.S. last Friday to claim her husband’s body, according to Jeffers.
Coronilla Durán owned a restaurant in San Luis de La Paz, Jeffers said, telling the Times, “He didn’t want to stay in the United States.”
The Independent has reached out to Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for comment.
Coronilla Durán’s death comes after ICE agents fatally shot a 52-year-old Mexican man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, in Houston and a 25-year-old Colombian native, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, in Maine at traffic stops on July 7 and 13, respectively.
The Homeland Security Department said an ICE officer fired his weapon at Guerrero because he feared for “public safety,” and Salgado Araujo was shot in “self-defense.”
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