A Texas police chase has left six dead after the SUV packed with 15 people, believed to be illegal immigrants, over-corrected on the freeway, rolling several times and ejecting passengers, according to The New York Times.
When police officers tried to pull over a 2003 Ford Explorer for a moving violation, around 1:30 a.m., the driver sped away, heading North on Highway 59, towards Houston. Highway 59 runs from the Mexican border and town of Laredo, to east Texas and is frequently used to smuggle illegal immigrants.
The vehicle is designed to carry eight people, not 15.
"Officers noted that the rear seat in the vehicle had been folded down and that the middle seat had been previously removed, apparently to create more room in the vehicle," said Police Chief Clinton Wooldridge, according to FOX News.
Two people who ran from the scene were tracked down and detained; it is still unclear who was driving the vehicle of mostly Honduran and Guatemala nationals.
Four people died at the scene and two were air lifted to the hospital where they died shortly after. Seven others were injured and turned over to immigration officials after being treated and released at the hospital.
Authorities are suspecting this to be a human smuggling operation, according to UPI, and all have been turned over to federal immigration officials.
