A man fleeing immigration authorities outside a Home Depot store in Southern California was struck and killed by an SUV when he ran across a nearby freeway, officials said. Police in the city of Monrovia, about 32 kilometers northeast of Los Angeles, received a call on Thursday, August 14, about the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. A responding officer saw ICE agents approaching the store and conducting enforcement activity there, City Manager Dylan Feik said in a statement.
One man fled on foot and headed toward the nearby freeway, where he was struck by a vehicle, Feik said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died, the statement said. “We extend our condolences for the individual and his family,” Feik said.
The incident comes amid a series of arrests at Home Depot stores, car washes and other locations as President Donald Trump’s administration steps up immigration enforcement in Southern California. The raids by masked agents have stoked widespread fear in immigrant communities, and the man is the second person reported to have died in Southern California while trying to flee federal immigration enforcement authorities.
Camouflage and M-4 rifles
On Friday, a team of unmarked SUVs with tinted windows carrying Border Patrol agents sped up to a food stand outside a Home Depot location in Los Angeles. They hit the brakes and filed out with masked faces, some with camouflage uniforms and carrying M-4 rifles.
Agents had been doing surveillance on a Guatemalan woman who they said had a criminal background. A plainclothes agent approached the food stand to confirm it was her, and then the operation began. Bystanders sounded whistles and shouted profanities. The team repeated the drill at a car wash in the nearby community of Montebello but with less resistance. Two workers were arrested there.
On Thursday in Monrovia, the California Highway Patrol said the man was running across the lanes of eastbound Interstate 210 when he was struck by an SUV traveling about 80 or 97 kilometers per hour.
Widespread raids
The man’s name was not immediately released pending the notification of family. The CHP said the crash and the circumstances surrounding why the man was on the freeway are under investigation. A vigil was planned for Friday by immigrant advocates, who denounced the widespread raids.
Feik said he did not have information about the immigration operation or whether anyone was arrested. A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security wrote in an email that the agency was not notified of the incident until hours after operations in the area had concluded. “This individual was not being pursued by any DHS law enforcement,” said the spokesperson, who was not named.
The Trump administration has made arrests at Home Depot stores, car washes, garment factories and other locations, with many people held in immigration detention. Last month, a farmworker fell from a greenhouse roof during an immigration raid at a cannabis facility northwest of Los Angeles and died from his injuries.
Last month, a federal court in Southern California temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out indiscriminate sweeps. A hearing on the issue is set for September. George Lane, a Home Depot spokesperson, said in an email that the company isn’t notified when immigration operations will take place and is not involved in them.
