Smuggler’s SUV burns after pursuit; officers find child in duffel bag

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Youngster saved within 15 seconds of fire

Responding officers work to break into the back of a burning SUV after a high-speed pursuit from Webb into La Salle County last week and extract a duffel bag in which a young girl had been concealed. They made the rescue seconds before the vehicle was engulfed.

Tragedy was avoided through fast action by law enforcement officers arriving at the scene of a crash beside IH-35 on Thursday morning last week when it was discovered that a smuggler had been transporting a child in a duffel bag in the cargo trunk of a sport utility vehicle.
The crash at the end of a high-speed pursuit from Webb into La Salle County caused a grass fire that ultimately destroyed the suspect’s vehicle. Investigators have indicated they believe the immigrant child would have perished in the fire if she had not been discovered by those first on the scene.
The La Salle County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed this week that the incident began in Webb County shortly after 9 a.m. on March 24 when the driver of a white mid-size Nissan Infiniti sport utility vehicle avoided US Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint on the interstate.
Agents began following the vehicle and notified La Salle County law enforcement that a pursuit was underway.
The Encinal Police Department also reported on the case, writing in a press release this week that the SUV traveled through town and was being pursued at a high rate of speed.
Reports indicate the SUV was approaching Artesia Wells when officers deployed tire-deflating spikes in the road to bring the suspect’s vehicle to a halt. Sheriff’s deputies and Texas Highway Patrol troopers were joined by officers of the Encinal Police Department in the pursuit and in capturing the undocumented immigrant passengers once the SUV had stopped near Milemarker 57 and the public rest area beside the interstate.
The sheriff’s office reported this week that the Infiniti crashed into a ranch fence at the edge of the interstate’s grassy median and that the driver and several passengers were taken into custody. All of the passengers have been identified as undocumented immigrants.
The driver, whose identity has been withheld as of presstime, reportedly tried to evade officers on foot but was discovered hiding in the brush shortly after the crash.
The Encinal PD also reported that the driver told officers that a child had been concealed near the spare tire in the back of the vehicle.
Officers acted quickly in breaking through the SUV’s rear glass to retrieve the bag in which the child had been hidden. According to the Encinal PD, the youngster was pulled from the vehicle with only 15 seconds to spare, as fire had begun spreading through the SUV and over the surrounding grass.
The child is not reported as having suffered serious injury.
The report indicates the grass fire may have been started by the vehicle’s heated engine or exhaust system or by sparks resulting from it having lost some of its tires before it crashed.
Members of the La Salle Fire Rescue were dispatched to battle the blaze that moved quickly through dry grasses at the roadside and into brush on the adjoining ranch.
“This was one event in several that we encounter daily,” La Salle Sheriff’s Investigator Homar Olivarez said of the case. “Our officers are continually being slammed by the sheer volume of human smuggling attempts and the pursuits in which law enforcement agencies attempt to capture those responsible, bring the undocumented immigrants into custody and – especially in the case of a smuggler driving recklessly or at high speed – to help reduce the risk of serious harm to other motorists.”
Olivarez added that deputies are aware of the dangers of wildfires starting when vehicles come to a halt in the dry brush and that South Texas’ ongoing drought conditions have exacerbated the crisis.
“We may have as many as five pursuits in a single duty shift,” the investigator said. “It’s not unusual anymore. What we face now is the very real danger to lives and property as a direct result of these smugglers’ attempts to evade capture, when wildfires can start easily during the course of these evasion attempts.”