San Antonio driver says he didn’t know immigrants were in the truck.
Highlights:
A hospitalized migrant details his horrific journey in overheated truck
10 people have died, and dozens more were severely injured
Update Notes:
Update 5:17 pm ET: Tweaks graf 3, adds arraignment details in graf 17
San Antonio driver says he didn’t know immigrants were in truck
By Holly Yan and Jason Morris
CNN
James Matthew Bradley Jr. says he had no idea dozens of undocumented immigrants were stuffed inside the brutally hot semi truck he was driving.
That’s the story he told federal investigators, who clearly don’t believe him. The 60-year-old Florida man is charged with knowingly transporting undocumented immigrants.
Bradley was driving the tractor-trailer found parked at a Walmart in San Antonio early Sunday morning. After an employee noticed the suspicious vehicle and called police, authorities found dozens of undocumented immigrants inside.
Eight people in the truck were already dead, and two more died after being hospitalized. Dozens more were severely injured, and many will suffer from “irreversible brain damage,” the city’s fire chief said.
San Antonio’s police chief called the case “a human trafficking crime.”
“Checking the video from the store, we found there were a number of vehicles that came in and picked up a lot of the folks that were in that trailer that survived the trip,” Police Chief William McManus said.
But the truck driver said he didn’t know what — or who — he was hauling.
Driver said he was surprised by ‘Spanish’ people
When police came to investigate the semi, an officer found “multiple people standing and laying at and around the rear of the trailer,” according to a criminal complaint against Bradley.
That’s when they started talking to the driver.
“Bradley advised the officer that the trailer he was hauling had been sold and he was transporting the trailer from Schaller, Iowa, to Brownsville, Texas,” on the border with Mexico, the federal criminal complaint says. “Bradley stated he was unaware of the contents and/or cargo.”
It wasn’t until Bradley parked his tractor-trailer and went outside to urinate that he heard movements in the trailer, the driver told investigators.
“Bradley said he went to open the doors and was surprised when he was run over by ‘Spanish’ people and knocked to the ground,” the complaint states.
“Bradley said he then noticed bodies just lying on the floor like meat. Bradley said he knew at least one of them was dead. Bradley said he knew the trailer refrigeration system didn’t work and that the four vent holes were probably clogged up.”
But the driver didn’t call 911, authorities said. Instead, he went back to the tractor and called his wife.
Bradley was in handcuffs as he limped into a federal court on Monday, surrounded by several US marshals. The driver spoke briefly with his assistant public federal defender before the arraignment. Bradley’s detention and request for bail will be addressed at a preliminary hearing on Thursday.