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A 34-year-old man pleaded not guilty on Friday to eight counts of manslaughter for crashing into a bus stop by a migrant shelter in Brownsville where he killed eight immigrants, court records show.
George Alvarez also pleaded not guilty to an additional ten counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for critically injuring other migrants.
A Cameron County grand jury indicted the man on Sept. 6.
Alvarez drove into the group of immigrants at 8:29 a.m. on May 7 at the bus stop across the street from the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center at 600 N. Minnesota Ave.
The deadly incident was caught on camera and circulated widely on social media.
“Through the investigation it was found that the SUV ran a red light, lost control, flipped on its side and struck a total of 18 individuals,” Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda said after the crash. “It was further found that there were six fatalities on scene and 12 critically injured. From then to now fatalities have grown to eight.”
The chief also said that the victims were all immigrants, were all men and that some of them are Venezuelan.
Those who died in the crash include Jose Cario-Moreno, Cristian Sangranis Rodriguez, Brayan Garcia, Hector Medina Medero, Enyerbeth Cabarcas, Luis Matute Vasquez, Jorge Flores Colina and Richard Bustamante Perez.
Alvarez remains held in the Cameron County Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center on a total of $2.7 million in bonds, according to jail records.
His next court hearing is scheduled for late February.
