The man suspected of hitting six people described as migrant farm workers with a sport-utility vehicle outside a store in North Carolina has reportedly surrendered to police and claims it was an accident.
David González, 68, turned himself over to authorities after initial reports indicated that investigators were examining the possibility that the workers were struck intentionally.
The case which led to González’s arrest unfolded in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on Sunday afternoon.
That’s when the driver of a sport-utility vehicle struck Jorge A López, Zalapa M Hermosillo, José L Calderón, Luis D Alcantar, Rodrigo M Gutiérrez Tapia and Santiago Baltazar in the parking lot of a local Walmart store.
The six victims were in the US on agricultural visas and were employees of the nearby Knob Creek Orchards, which grows and sells fruits. They were all hospitalized with various injuries, including broken legs and ankles as well as concussions. However, none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
Lincolnton’s police chief, Brian Greene, later described to reporters why authorities believed the victims’ injuries may have been intentionally inflicted.
Citing the contents of security video captured by a parking lot camera, Greene said the SUV involved appeared as if it was going to be pulled into a space.
But “then it appears to accelerate at the last minute, jumping the curb, hitting the individuals and [nearby] trees and going through the area into the other side of the parking lot and exits the same way it came”, Greene said of the footage.
Yet González’s family told police it was an accident as he turned himself over to officials to be arrested in connection with the case.
In a statement, Lincolnton police said: “The family members advised Mr González had contacted them … and advised he had been in an accident. The family members said he told them he was parking at Walmart and hit the gas by accident. The family members said he told them he panicked and left the scene.”
Lincolnton police said González had been cooperative with investigators since coming forward. Nonetheless, he faces felony hit-and-run charges and had to put up a $50,000 bond to be released from custody pending the outcome of the case.
Sunday’s news of the injuries to López, Hermosillo, Calderón, Alcantar, Gutiérrez Tapia and Baltazar captured national attention, coming at a time of heated political rhetoric associated with immigrants and immigrant workers in the US.
Less than three months earlier, a man who was purportedly heard shouting anti-immigrant sentiments was charged with manslaughter after plowing into a crowd outside a migrant center in Brownsville, Texas, a community on the border with Mexico.
Authorities investigating the Texas case charged 34-year-old George Alvarez with eight counts of manslaughter and 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
