A 24-year-old Honduran national was struck and killed by a vehicle while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Virginia last week.
Josué Castro Rivera was reportedly on his way to his landscaping job Thursday when ICE officers stopped his vehicle and attempted to detain him and three other passengers, according to his brother, Henry Castro.
Castro Rivera fled the scene on foot and tried to cross Interstate 264 in Norfolk, where he was fatally struck by a 2002 Ford pickup truck, state and federal authorities said.
Josué Castro Rivera is seen holding a cell phone in Virginia Beach, Va., in April 2021.
He was pronounced dead at the scene around 11 a.m., according to the Virginia State Police.
“He had a very good heart,” his devastated brother, Henry Castro, said Sunday.
Castro Rivera had lived in the United States for four years and regularly sent money home to support his family in Honduras, Henry said.
The Department of Homeland Security said ICE officers were conducting a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation when they stopped the vehicle. The agency said the passengers were detained for allegedly residing in the country without legal authorization.
According to DHS, Castro Rivera “resisted heavily and fled” before being struck and killed by a passing vehicle.
“He didn’t deserve everything that happened to him,” his brother said.
The family plans to raise funds to return Castro Rivera’s body to Honduras for burial, calling his death an “injustice.”
In a statement, DHS attributed the incident to “a direct result of every politician, activist, and reporter who continues to spread propaganda and misinformation about ICE’s mission and ways to avoid detention.”
Similar deaths during immigration enforcement operations have sparked public outrage and calls for further investigation.
Castro Rivera was on his way to his gardening job Thursday when ICE officers pulled over his vehicle and attempted to detain him and three other passengers, according to his brother.
The incident follows a series of fatal encounters involving federal immigration agents in recent months.
In September, in a Chicago suburb, federal immigration officers fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop. The Department of Homeland Security initially reported that an officer had been “seriously injured,” but police body camera footage later showed the officer walking and describing his injuries as “nothing major.”
In July, a farmworker died after falling from a 30-foot-high roof during a chaotic immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm.
And in August, another man fleeing federal agents in California ran onto a freeway and was fatally struck by a vehicle.
