(CNN) — A 28-year-old man who ran away from federal immigration agents in St. Augustine, Florida, early Tuesday was struck and killed by a tractor trailer, the Florida Highway Patrol said, as the Department of Homeland Security faces increased scrutiny over its tactics.
The incident occurred around 6:40 a.m. during an encounter with Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the highway patrol said in a statement.
Four occupants of a vehicle ran away and one ran across State Road 16 and “into the path of the tractor trailer,” Sgt. Dylan Bryan told CNN.
The driver stopped and tried to render aid, but the person died at the scene, Bryan said.
A veterinary nurse on her way to work was among the bystanders who tried to save the man’s life. Sara Clark Atkinson told CNN she was leaving her neighborhood when she noticed the man running beside her vehicle and into oncoming traffic.
Atkinson was joined by another woman and an off-duty firefighter who also rushed to help. Atkinson performed CPR on the man while another bystander used her stethoscope to search for a pulse, she said.
“The young lady grabbed my stethoscope from around my neck and was trying to find a pulse as I was giving chest compressions,” Atkinson said.
“I’m sad for the man who lost his life. Yesterday forever changed my life and I will never forget that man’s face,” she said. “I’m glad he didn’t die alone under that semi. I’m glad that he felt my touch and heard my words before he took his last breath. He wasn’t alone.”
The Associated Press reported the person who died is a man. His identity and immigration status remain unknown, and the reason for the encounter with federal agents is not yet clear.
In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security said agents were conducting an operation that resulted in the death of a Mexican national. HSI is conducting an investigation alongside the highway patrol, the statement added.
The highway patrol is investigating the incident, and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office helped with traffic control.
The death comes after other high-profile fatalities involving ICE this past week.
On Monday, 25-year-old Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine. The Colombian Embassy initially reported his age as 26.
A week earlier, on July 7, Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston.
Neither was the target of an immigration enforcement operation, officials said.
Tuesday’s crash is also not the first time a person has died while fleeing immigration enforcement.
Last August, a Guatemalan man running from an immigration raid in Los Angeles died after being struck by an SUV on a freeway. In October, a Honduran man was fatally struck by a vehicle on a Virginia highway while fleeing immigration agents, The Associated Press reported. In February, a teacher was killed near her school after a man fleeing ICE crashed a car into hers.
In a post on X, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon called Tuesday’s fatal crash a “tragedy” and said it is a result of “an out-of-control agency terrorizing our communities and our state.”
It’s “perfectly understandable” for a person to want to run upon encountering ICE agents, Adriana Rivera, a spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said in a statement.
“When federal agents descend on communities and initiate encounters that spark panic and fear, people run,” the statement said. “In the United States, in 2026, whether someone runs or complies with ICE, death is a very real possible outcome.”
This story has been updated.
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