A somber vigil honored a 52-year-old man who was fatally struck by a vehicle on the 210 Freeway in Monrovia after he fled from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at a nearby Home Depot.
Friends said Carlos Montoya had been in the U.S. for five years, working to support his four daughters back home in Guatemala.
“He needed to feed his family,” Yvette del Corazon said at the vigil. “He ran out of desperation and they ran after him.”
“Most of the people here who are being rounded up by men in masks — who are not showing their faces, in unmarked vans — are here to support their families,” said Monrovia resident Dawn Lovi, who attended the vigil.
The ICE operation happened shortly before 10 a.m. on Aug. 14.
Monrovia City Manager Dylan Feik confirmed that during the ICE activity at the store on Mountain Avenue, the man fled on foot and entered the freeway, crossing Evergreen Avenue and running onto the eastbound lanes of the freeway.
Montoya was transported a local hospital where he later died.
According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, the man was not being pursued by any DHS law enforcement.
A man was struck and killed on the 210 Freeway after he tried to flee an immigration raid at a Monrovia Home Depot.
“We do not know their legal status. We were not aware of this incident or notified by California Highway Patrol until hours after operations in the area had concluded,” read the statement.
Protesters later held a rally in front of the Home Depot.
“It was basically indirect manslaughter,” one protester said. “They chased him out of the Home Depot, and as a result he ran onto the freeway. That wouldn’t have happened if ICE wasn’t raiding the area.”
Students from Monrovia High School organized a rally at the scene after hearing about the tragedy as the California Highway Patrol investigated the fatal collision.
Those who gathered called for an immediate end to the immigration raids.