A man was hit and killed on the 210 Freeway on Thursday as he tried to flee federal agents raiding a Home Depot in Monrovia.
His death at a hospital was confirmed Thursday afternoon by Monrovia City Manager Dylan Feik. The circumstances surrounding the fatal accident are under investigation by the California Highway Patrol.
Monrovia police received reports at 9:43 a.m. of immigration agents approaching the Home Depot, according to Feik, who said an officer observed possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the site.
In a emailed statement to The Times, the Department of Homeland Security said that “the individual was not being pursued by any DHS law enforcement” and that the agency was not aware of the freeway incident until hours after operations in the area had concluded.
A day laborer who asked that his name not be used, citing safety concerns, said he goes to the Monrovia Home Depot every day around 8 a.m. in search of work.
This morning started like any other, he said, until he heard people start to yell, “La migra, corre.” (“Immigration, run!”)
That’s when he took out his phone and started to record.
Although he avoided detention, he said he “felt powerless” that he couldn’t help his friends. “It feels horrible — I couldn’t do anything for them other than record what was happening.”
As workers scrambled away from the agents, one person fled the hardware store on foot, jumped a concrete wall and entered the eastbound 210 Freeway.
Just a few minutes later, Monrovia Fire & Rescue responded to a call of a vehicle collision with a pedestrian.
A motorist, Vincent Enriquez, said he saw the man soon after he was struck and he was still alive.
“By the time I was passing by … he must’ve been struck no more than a few minutes prior,” said the driver. “He was still moving.”
The person was transported by ambulance to a hospital but did not survive his injuries.
“It just breaks my heart, because it’s just so inhumane,” said Robert Chao Romero, a UCLA professor of Chicano studies and Monrovia resident. “These horrible, unjust ICE policies led to someone dying.”
Monrovia resident Karen Suarez said she rushed to the Home Depot as soon as she heard about the raid and met the daughter of the man who was hit by a car.
“She was visibly very upset, and she was going to go to the hospital and try to find out about her dad,” Suarez said. “I feel so bad for her. I feel so bad for the families. These are people trying to escape whatever horrible atrocities they came from for a better life.”
At 6 p.m., a crowd of about 50 people rallied in front of the Home Depot, waving Mexican flags, carrying signs that read “ICE out of L.A.” and chanting, “When Trump says get back, we say fight back.”
A bouquet of flowers and two prayer candles were placed opposite the 210 Freeway as a memorial for the man who was killed.
CHP officers were asking for surveillance camera video from local businesses as part of their investigation into the incident.
Feik said in a statement that the city had not received any communication or information from ICE.
Palmira Figueroa, director of communications for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said 13 people were detained in the raid.
Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the network, said another day laborer was struck by what he believed was an immigration agent in a vehicle.
“His leg is very swollen, and he doesn’t want to go to the doctor because he’s afraid of going to the hospital right now,” Alvarado said.
When asked whether any of the immigration agents identified themselves or presented warrants, Alvarado said it wasn’t clear.
“They think that .. [Home Depot] is a good place where they can come to arrest as many people as they can and comply with their quotas, the quotas that the president, [White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Stephen Miller are imposing on them.”
Romero, the UCLA professor, said the Home Depot operation appeared to be in violation of the federal court order barring the government from carrying out these types of raids. Last month, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing federal agents from carrying out indiscriminate immigration arrests based on a person’s race, language, vocation or location.
Immigrant rights advocates voiced their anger after Thursday’s fatality.
“We hold the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security and the Home Depot responsible for his death, and they must be held accountable,” said Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio, an immigrant rights group that patrols neighborhoods to alert residents of immigration sweeps.
“This is a painful reminder for us that we must continue to boycott the Home Depot due to their complicity to the ICE raids at their stores,” he said. “The Home Depot and the agents that chased the man have blood on their hands.”
In July, Jaime Alanís Garcia, 57, was killed during an immigration raid at a farm in Ventura County. The circumstances of his death are still not fully clear, but it sparked concern among immigration advocates.
Alanís’ family said he was fleeing immigration agents at the Glass House Farms cannabis operation in Camarillo when he climbed atop a greenhouse and accidentally fell 30 feet, suffering catastrophic injury.
But the Department of Homeland Security said that Alanís was not among those being pursued and that federal agents called in a medevac for him.
Home Depots, where immigrant laborers gather in search of work, have been the scene of numerous immigration raids across the region beginning this year.