Monday midday update:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ The Latest on the deaths of 10 people whose bodies were found in a roasting tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas (all times local):
10:50 a.m.
A federal complaint says immigrants packed into a tractor-trailer discovered outside a Texas Wal-Mart were taking turns breathing through a hole in the trailer and pounding on the walls to get the driver’s attention.
According to a complaint filed Monday, a passenger in the trailer told investigators that he and others who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally were guided into the trailer to be taken north to San Antonio.
The complaint says passengers appeared fine during the first hour of their journey, but people later began to struggle to breathe. They were trying to get the driver’s attention, but to no avail.
Federal prosecutors on Monday charged James Matthew Bradley with illegally transporting the immigrants for commercial or financial gain, resulting in the deaths of 10 people inside.
___
10:30 a.m.
Federal authorities in Texas have charged the driver of a tractor-trailer with transporting immigrants in the U.S. illegally, an incident resulting in the death of 10 people.
A complaint filed Monday accuses James Matthew Bradley of driving a trailer packed with immigrants for “commercial advantage or private financial gain.” The charge carries the possibility of the death penalty.
Bradley is expected to appear Monday morning in San Antonio.
Authorities fear the death toll could rise because many of those rescued from the sweltering truck in San Antonio have been hospitalized with extreme dehydration and heatstroke.
___
9:30 a.m.
Federal authorities say a 10th person has died after being discovered in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas.
Prosecutors said in a statement Monday that the person died at a hospital. Nearly 20 others were hospitalized in dire condition after they were found in the truck outside a San Antonio Walmart early Sunday.
___
Monday morning update:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ A 60-year-old man who was arrested after authorities say at least nine people died in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer found outside a Walmart in San Antonio is due in federal court.
Federal prosecutors say James Mathew Bradley Jr. of Clearwater, Florida, will be charged on Monday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan says the truck driver is in custody, but the local U.S. Attorney’s Office wouldn’t say whether Bradley was the alleged driver who was arrested.
Officials say nearly 20 other people rescued from the back of the rig early Sunday were hospitalized in dire condition, many with extreme dehydration and heatstroke.
Foreign officials from Mexico and Guatemala confirmed people from those countries were found in the abandoned tractor-trailer.
Sunday updates:
SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ The Latest on several people found dead in the back of a tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot in Texas (all times local):
2:45 p.m.
A U.S. official says the death toll from people found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in the parking lot of a San Antonio Walmart has risen
to 10.
Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Associated Press that two people died in a hospital. Eight dead bodies were
found in the truck.
Based on initial interviews with survivors, Homan says there may have been more than 100 people in the truck. Thirty-eight were found inside. The rest are
believed to have fled or been picked up.
Homan says some survivors have identified themselves as Mexican nationals. Four of the passengers are believed to be between 10 and 17 years old, and at least
one of them is in serious condition.
___
1:10 p.m.
Authorities say 30 people have been taken to the hospital after they were found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer with in the parking lot of a San
Antonio Walmart. Eight others died in what police are calling “a human trafficking crime.”
Twenty are said to be in extremely critical or serious condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heat stroke. Others had lesser injuries.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood says the trailer didn’t have a working air conditioning system and the victims “were very hot to the touch.”
Police Chief William McManus says some of those in the truck ran into the woods, leading to a search. He says many of the truck’s occupants appeared to be in their 20s and 30s but that there were also what appeared to be two school-age children.
Officials said the truck driver was arrested. The U.S. Homeland Security Department is taking the lead in the investigation.
___
9:45 a.m.
San Antonio-based U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin Jr. says those responsible for the deaths of eight people inside a sweltering tractor-trailer truck outside a San Antonio Walmart store are “ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo.”
Durbin says those inside the truck were helpless in the punishing 100-degree-plus (37.78-Celsius) heat and were victims of a “smuggling venture gone horribly wrong.”
He says federal investigators will work with San Antonio police to identify those responsible.
After daybreak Sunday, the truck remained at the side and toward the back of the store. The scene is marked off with yellow crime-scene tape and with officers and patrol cars. The trailer of the 18-wheeler truck has an Iowa license plate. Neither it nor the truck’s cab appear to have markings.
___
7 a.m.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood says the many injured survivors taken from the tractor-trailer parked outside a Walmart store were suffering in varying degrees from such injuries as heat stroke and dehydration.
Hood told journalists at the scene that paramedics and firefighters who treated the victims found all had accelerated heartbeats when they were taken from the truck in the stifling heat. The high in San Antonio had reached 101 degrees (38 Celsius) on Saturday.
“They were very hot to the touch. So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water,” Hood says.
In video authorities posted online, Hood stood against a backdrop of flashing emergency vehicle lights in the pre-dawn hours as he briefed reporters. He says police and fire officials treated it as a “mass casualty situation” much like an airplane disaster.
In addition to the eight dead, Hood says, there were at least 30 others aboard the truck. Of those survivors, at least 20 people were in extremely critical or serious condition and the others had lesser injuries.
“We are very fortunate that there weren’t 38 people who were locked inside of this vehicle dead,” he says.
___
5:40 a.m.
The temperature in San Antonio had been in the 90s just before eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer outside a Walmart store.
Authorities say several other people were found alive in the truck, which didn’t have a working air conditioning system despite the blistering summer heat. Those people have been hospitalized.
Police say it’s a horrific human trafficking case and the driver has been arrested.
Police say a Walmart employee was approached in the parking lot by a person from the truck who was asking for water late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Police say the employee gave the person the water and called for help. They say responding officers found the people in the tractor-trailer.
The National Weather Service says the temperature in San Antonio hit 101 degrees just before 5 p.m. Saturday and didn’t dip below 90 degrees until after 10 p.m.
___
5:10 a.m.
The driver of a tractor-trailer in which eight people were found dead in a parking lot outside a Texas Walmart has been arrested.
Authorities haven’t released the identity of the driver.
San Antonio police say several other people from the tractor-trailer have been taken to hospitals. They say it’s a horrific human trafficking case.
Police say a Walmart employee was approached in the parking lot by a person from the truck who was asking for water late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Police say the employee gave the person the water and then called them and when they arrived they found the eight people dead in the back of the
trailer.
Police say the U.S. Department of Homeland Security s involved in the investigation into what happened
___
4:45 a.m.
Eight people have been found dead in a tractor-trailer outside a Walmart in Texas in what police are calling a horrific human trafficking case.
Several other people have been taken to hospitals.
San Antonio police say a Walmart employee was approached in a parking lot by a person from the truck who was asking for water late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Police say the employee gave the person the water and then called them and when they arrived they found the eight people dead in the back
of the trailer.
Police say they checked surveillance video, which shows vehicles had arrived and picked up other people from the tractor-trailer. They say they’re “looking at a human trafficking crime.”
Police say the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is involved in the investigation into what happened.
