Norfolk (BN24) – A 24-year-old Honduran man was struck and killed by a passing vehicle while attempting to flee U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during an operation in Norfolk, Virginia, authorities said.
The victim, identified as Josué Castro Rivera, was on his way to work at a gardening job Thursday when ICE agents stopped his vehicle and attempted to detain him and three other passengers, according to his brother, Henry Castro. Rivera ran from the scene on foot and tried to cross Interstate 264, where he was hit by a 2002 Ford pickup truck around 11 a.m., the Virginia State Police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE officers were conducting a “targeted, intelligence-based operation” at the time of the incident. The agency said the other passengers were detained for allegedly living in the United States without legal authorization.
“Castro Rivera resisted heavily and fled,” DHS said in a statement, adding that he died after being struck by a passing motorist.
Family members said Castro Rivera had been living in the U.S. for about four years and regularly sent money home to support his relatives in Honduras. His brother described him as hardworking and devoted to his family, calling his death an “injustice.” The family now plans to raise funds to return his body to Honduras for burial.
“He didn’t deserve everything that happened to him,” Henry Castro said.
The DHS statement described the young man’s death as “a direct result of every politician, activist, and reporter who continues to spread propaganda and misinformation about ICE’s mission and ways to avoid detention.”
Castro Rivera’s death is the latest in a string of fatal incidents involving immigration enforcement operations across the United States. In recent months, several encounters between ICE officers and undocumented immigrants have ended in tragedy.
In August, a man fleeing ICE agents in California was fatally struck by a vehicle on a freeway. The previous month, a farmworker died after falling from a 30-foot-high roof during an immigration raid at a marijuana farm in the same state. And in September, ICE officers fatally shot a Mexican national during a traffic stop in a Chicago suburb—a case that has prompted public outrage and calls for greater accountability after body camera footage contradicted early federal claims of a “serious injury” to an officer.
The Virginia State Police are leading the investigation into Castro Rivera’s death, while federal authorities continue to review the actions of the ICE agents involved.
