DEATH TRAP
9 immigs die, dozens discovered in smuggler’s sweltering semi
Cops in San Antonio remove evidence Sunday from 18-wheeler that was packed with immigrants in human trafficking horror.
NINE IMMIGRANTS trapped inside a tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio died early Sunday in the 18-wheel tomb that likely reached well over 100 degrees.
The victims’ bodies were hot to the touch when they were found after a store employee called police about 12:30 a.m.
Authorities arrested the driver and said they suspected the deathtrap — which left 29 people with dehydration and heatstroke — was a botched human trafficking operation.
Some of the victims were from Mexico, and at least two were from Guatemala, according to officials from both nations.
Two survivors told Guatemala’s foreign ministry that the immigrants crossed the border on foot at Laredo and their final destination was supposed to be Houston.
Police made the disturbing discovery after a man managed to get out of the truck and ask a Walmart employee for water, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. The employee gave the man water and then called cops.
Police found dozens of people suffering inside the trailer. It had a broken air conditioner.
“They were very hot to the touch. So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water,” Fire Chief Charles Hood said. “It was a mass casualty situation for us.”
Eight people were dead in the truck — and one died at the hospital, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan said. The Bexar County medical examiner’s office will determine how the victims died, but police suspect the cause will be exposure and asphyxiation.
Two 15-year-olds were the youngest victims. Most of the migrants appeared to be in their 20s and 30s, according to McManus.
Some of the passengers escaped into the nearby woods as police opened the trailer, he added.
Temperatures reached 101 degrees Saturday. The stifling heat did not drop below 90 degrees until well into the evening. At 80 degrees outside, the temperature inside closed vehicles can reach 125 degrees in an hour, experts say.
The driver, James Bradley of Florida, faces state and federal charges. He was in a federal lockup Sunday.
Homan said there may have been more than 100 people in the truck at one point and that some survivors said they were from Mexico. The parking lot is about 130 miles from the border.
The horrific incident could have been worse.
“That was a refrigerated truck with no refrigeration,” Hood told CNN.
“Nobody was going to survive in it. So we were very fortunate that they were found, because if they would have spent another night in that environment, we would have 38 people who would not have survived.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how long the truck had been parked at the Walmart. It had Iowa plates and was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa. Owner Brian Pyle told The Washington Post that the driver, Bradley, was on “his very first trip.”
A relative, Mike Pyle, told the San Antonio Express-News that their company owned the trailer, but the truck was Bradley’s property. He was not authorized to make trips through Texas, Pyle said. Both Pyle said they were unaware of the trailer’s contents.
Authorities said 20 victims were in extremely critical condition. Hood said many of the survivors will have irreversible brain damage.