EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Three people, including a police officer, are dead and at least two others injured following a high-speed Wednesday morning pursuit of an SUV carrying suspected migrant smugglers.
The pursuit ended around 3 a.m. with a crash that left multiple vehicles overturned or on their side on Juan Pablo II Boulevard overlooking the Rio Grande in Juarez, Mexico.
Chihuahua state police identified a victim as one of their own, Officer Elida Elizabeth Sariñana. The two other fatalities were occupants of the brown SUV, according to a police report obtained by Border Report.
A Mexican National Guard soldier and two civilians were injured in the crash. The report stated a state police squad car struck the SUV at high speed.
A state police commander later Wednesday said one, not two civilians were injured. Local news media reported the deceased officer was ejected from the vehicle and struck the pavement in the aftermath of the crash.
The report characterizes the incident as a “confrontation” between suspected migrant smugglers, the state police and the National Guard. The area between the Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge and Juarez’s Big Red X plaza in the past few years has been known as a drop-off point for migrants seeking to go over the U.S. border wall illegally.
A video taken by Border Report news partner ProVideo shows investigators milling about the crime scene just after daybreak.
The images show a wrecked SUV, a state police car and a National Guard pickup lying on their side, and an overturned dark-colored sedan.
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