A public-school teacher was killed on Monday when a man fleeing immigration agents in Savannah, Ga., crashed a car into the teacher’s vehicle, according to the local police.
Shortly before 7:45 a.m., agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were trying to pull over the man, Oscar Vasquez Lopez, 38, according to the Chatham County Police Department.
Originally from Guatemala, Mr. Lopez was issued a final order of removal by a federal judge in 2024, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Officers were trying to apprehend him in Savannah when he “fled the scene, making a reckless U-turn and running a red light, colliding into a civilian vehicle,” according to a statement by the agency.
The crash occurred outside a public school, Herman W. Hesse K-8 School, which serves about 1,000 students, the police said. There were no classes on Monday because of the Presidents’ Day holiday, but it was a planning day for teachers, according to the school’s website.
The police said the teacher in the other vehicle was the only occupant. She was Linda Davis, a special-education teacher at the school, according to local education officials. Ms. Davis was transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the police said.
In a statement posted to Facebook, the school principal, Alonna McMullen, said that Ms. Davis “was a beloved member of our school family and her loss has affected us deeply.” Ms. Davis had worked as a teacher in the district since 2022.
Mr. Lopez was also transported to the hospital, where he was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to the police. There were no other passengers in his vehicle.
The Chatham County Police Department said it was not involved with the ICE operation, nor had it been aware of it beforehand. The police arrested Mr. Lopez and charged him with first degree homicide, reckless driving, driving without a valid license and failure to obey a traffic control device, according to Betsy Nolen, a spokeswoman for the police department.
Department of Homeland Security officials said that Mr. Lopez had entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and location. A department spokeswoman pointed fingers at politicians and media whom she said have demonized ICE and encouraged resistance of agents.
“Fleeing from and resisting federal law enforcement is not only a crime but extraordinarily dangerous and puts oneself, our officers and innocent civilians at risk,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the spokeswoman. “Now, an innocent bystander has lost their life.”
Anne Allen Westbrook, a Democrat who represents Chatham County in the Georgia House of Representatives, said the crash had occurred in an area that many families drive through on a daily basis, including her own.
“The scale and magnitude of ICE’s dragnet is costing us too much,” she wrote in a post on Facebook.
The episode is not the first in which an ICE pursuit has resulted in a crash or death. Last year, a man was killed in Southern California while fleeing an immigration raid at a Home Depot. Another died in Virginia after running onto a highway to try to escape ICE agents.
Soumya Karlamangla is a Times reporter who covers California. She is based in the Bay Area.
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