\u2018Outrage at this system\u2019: Advocates plan Jacksonville rally after man dies fleeing ICE agents in St. Johns County<\/a><\/p>\nFHP says a tractor-trailer was traveling eastbound when the man ran across the road and into the truck\u2019s path. He suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. FHP said the tractor-trailer driver stopped immediately and attempted to render aid and was not injured.<\/p>\n
Troopers say the moments leading up to the crash began at a nearby gas station parking lot on SR-16, where Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and ICE agents had an encounter with a vehicle. FHP says four occupants fled on foot and one of them ran across SR-16 before being hit.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security provided News4JAX a statement confirming a DHS operation in the area and noting investigators are still working the case:<\/p>\n
\u201cOn July 14, DHS law enforcement conducted an operation near St. Johns, Florida. Florida Highway Patrol and HSI are investigating an incident resulting in the death of a Mexican national. We will provide an update when available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Candles and flowers left for 28-year-old who died in a crash after encounter with ICE (News4JAX)<\/p>\n
Wednesday night, people lined the shoulder of SR-16, leaving flowers, candles and handwritten messages at the site of the crash. Passing drivers honked as they went by.<\/p>\n
One organizer, Katie Chorbak, said the group wanted to raise awareness about immigration enforcement actions and what she described as a broader pattern of fear and escalation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same level of violence,\u201d Chorbak said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s with a gun or you\u2019re forcing people to run into traffic, violence is violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community gathers along SR-16 in St. Johns County for candlelight vigil. (News4JAX)<\/p>\n
Another attendee, Jaime Swedeen, said she came out to show support for the victim\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d Swedeen said. \u201cAll these people out here and people across the country are not going to let him die in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A crowd gathered Wednesday night along State Road 16 in St. Johns County,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1877,1841,116,118,117,5902,89766,4325],"class_list":["post-341600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-st-johns-county","tag-state-road-16","tag-vigil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}