An illegal immigrant from El Salvador is accused of running over and killing a grandmother with her car during a carjacking at a 7-Eleven in Sterling, Virginia, on Sunday.
The man stole the vehicle of Melody Waldecker, 54, of Silver Spring, Maryland, at approximately 11:39 a.m.
“This is another reminder that it is essential that federal and local authorities responsible for enforcing our nation’s immigration laws work together.”
Witnesses said Waldecker was thrown from the Kia during the carjacking. WUSA Television The report quoted audio from a scanner.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect hit Waldecker with his vehicle and fled the scene. press releaseThe grandmother was pronounced dead at the crime scene.
Waldecker’s son told WUSA that Waldecker had stopped at a convenience store on his way home after visiting his mother at a nursing home.
WUSA reporter Matthew Torres X posted a video taken by a local resident that showed what appeared to be a stolen car screeching and speeding through a residential area.
Police took the suspect, identified as 21-year-old Jose Aguilar Martinez, into custody at 12:17 p.m.
The suspect was taken to a hospital for what “appeared to be an unrelated medical condition” and then transported to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center in Leesburg.
Fox News National Correspondent Bill Melgin Aguilar-Martinez was reportedly charged with felony carjacking, Melgin said, adding that more charges are expected and that the suspect is being held without bail.
On Wednesday, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office news release Aguilar Martinez is an illegal immigrant.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said: Fox News Aguilar-Martinez entered the United States as a “fugitive” at an unknown date and place.
ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal filed a detention request to turn him over to immigration authorities upon his release from a local detention facility.
According to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the illegal immigrant from El Salvador had no permanent address but had a California driver’s license.
“This is a horrific tragedy and we mourn the death of Melody Waldecker as a result of the heinous acts of an individual who suspected of entering our country illegally. This is another reminder that it is essential that local authorities cooperate with federal authorities responsible for enforcing our nation’s immigration laws,” Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said in a statement.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said it cooperates with Homeland Security Investigations and ICE “as is customary.”
The sheriff’s office said ICE issued detention orders for 479 aliens arrested in Loudoun County for other crimes in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
This is the second fatal carjacking in Virginia in two weeks. On July 20, 37-year-old Jose Vasquez Galvan killed The incident occurred in Dumfries when a suspect took a Lexus and ran him over while fleeing the scene.
I’m worried
The Blaze News reported Tuesday that a Honduran national who has faced multiple immigration detention orders and been convicted of at least one assault charge is suspected of beating a man to death in Fairfax County, Virginia, earlier this month.
The problem is I.C.E. Reportedly It filed multiple immigration detention orders against the suspects with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, but ICE said the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office refused to honor the detention orders. WJLA-TV reported.
Commenting on the incident, Chapman said, “We need to make sure we don’t keep people in our community who can do further harm. We know that these people are violent, they’re illegals, and I don’t think it makes sense to allow them to remain in our community and then go on to commit another crime.”
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