<\/p>\n
An undated photo of Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran.<\/p>\n
Courtesy Colectivo \u00c1rbol<\/p>\n
The Mexican man who officials say was killed by a truck last week in St. Augustine while running from immigration officers was identified by a farmworkers\u2019 advocacy group as a father of two on vacation with a valid tourist visa.<\/p>\n
Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran, 28, was visiting from his hometown of San Luis de La Paz, a small city in the central state of Guanajuato, according to Orlando-based non-profit Colectivo \u00c1rbol.\u00a0Officials have yet to confirm his identity.<\/p>\n
Isaret Jeffers, who represents the organization and has been providing support to his wife, Jessica Alamilla, said Coronilla Duran arrived in the United States three weeks ago for vacation, and had only been in Florida for two days. He was hit and killed by the truck on July 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was going to return this past Saturday. He had already bought a flight,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cNow, unfortunately, if he is returning, his return is different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Mexican man is killed by truck as he flees immigration agents in St. Augustine<\/a><\/p>\n The Florida Highway Patrol told the Miami Herald last week that the agency found he had been running from an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations agents. DHS has not provided new details since the incident took place last week.<\/p>\n His was the third death following an encounter with immigration officials in a week, after federal agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man in Houston<\/a> on July 7, and Johan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero, a Colombian man, in Biddeford<\/a>, Maine on July 13. Neither of the men were the targets of the agents.<\/p>\n As the Trump Administration carries out a sweeping mass deportation campaign, agents are rounding up immigrants on sidewalks, highways and in homes, some with work permits and other legal documentation. U.S. citizens have also been stopped and detained.<\/a><\/p>\n Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has opened an investigation<\/a> into the deaths of at least 18 Mexican nationals since Trump assumed office, some of whom died during arrests and others in immigration detention. She said her government wants to file criminal charges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe express our deepest solidarity and sincere condolences to the family of the victims. Their pain is shared by the entire nation,\u201d Sheinbaum said on July 14<\/a>. \u201cNo fellow citizen should be unprotected when facing possible abuse from authority, disproportionate use of force, or human rights violations.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declined to provide further details of last week\u2019s incident in St. Augustine.<\/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,\u201d read a statement sent again to the Herald on Monday. \u201cWe will provide an update when available.\u201d<\/p>\n Coronilla Duran\u2019s wife found out about his death while watching television, Jeffers said. Alamilla declined a request to be interviewed, and Jeffers said she is focused on returning home with his body.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alamilla hadn\u2019t heard from her husband in more than a day when she saw the news that a man had been killed, and feared it was him. The couple have been married for 10 years and have a seven-month-old daughter and a seven-year-old son, Jeffers said. They own a small business in San Luis de La Paz.<\/p>\n Alamilla flew to Florida on Friday to make arrangements with a local funeral home, Jeffers said, while relatives watched their children. On Monday, she worked with the Mexican consulate to take his body back home to Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the Mexicans who have died in ICE custody or during arrests, at least four died by presumed suicide, including 19-year-old Royer Perez-Jimenez in March in Florida.<\/p>\n Jeffers said that Colectivo \u00c1rbol mainly supports farmworkers, many of whom are afraid to leave their homes amid immigration arrests.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are too afraid to go out and do things that used to be normal, like going to the supermarket, taking their kids to the park,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cNone of that is happening anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Unmarked blue SUVs<\/p>\n Jose Rivera, a truck driver for a garbage collection company, witnessed Coronilla Duran run out of the gas station in front of a Wawa convenience store off the highway.<\/p>\n Rivera had stopped for breakfast, and was sitting in his truck parallel to the highway just before 7 a.m. Coronilla Duran wore a light sky blue hoodie over a white T-shirt, blue jeans and Timberland shoes, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Coronilla Duran ran to the sidewalk leading to State Road 16 and turned around. Rivera followed Coronilla Duran\u2019s gaze in his truck\u2019s rearview mirror to see what he was running from.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when I see the undercover car with the lights on,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cBut when I looked back, he started running across the road.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera said he saw unmarked blue SUVs with tinted windows stopped on either side of a car at the gas station, and one moved to follow Coronilla Duran. The agents were in green uniforms, he said, and he thought they were from St. Johns County Sheriff\u2019s Office. But the sheriff\u2019s office told the Herald it wasn\u2019t involved in the incident, and responded later to investigate the traffic accident.<\/p>\n Rivera said Coronilla Duran reached the median of the highway, a small strip of grass, slipped and fell, picked himself up, and stumbled onto the asphalt of the other lane of traffic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe traffic was coming pretty quick, and he just lost his footing and didn\u2019t look where the traffic was coming,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cHe kept looking back.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera watched as the man fell in front of a trailer-tractor, and knew instantly that he had died.\u00a0<\/p>\n Agents didn\u2019t notice at first, Rivera thought, because he saw an officer point to the woods on the other side, as if they thought he escaped. But then they noticed the body in the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a heartbreaking moment for me,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cI have kids around his age.\u201d<\/p>\n Officers began to close off the road, and Rivera drove off. When he later heard the man\u2019s age he found it hard to believe. He looked younger, in the brief second Rivera glimpsed his face.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate when things like that happen, especially to young ones,\u201d Rivera told the Herald. \u201cI\u2019m almost 60, and yeah, you know, I\u2019ve been through a lot of life, but everybody should make it until they\u2019re older, right?\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published July 20, 2026 at 3:19 PM.<\/p>\n An undated photo of Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran, provided by Colectivo \u00c1rbol. Colectivo \u00c1rbol <\/p>\n
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