A female bicyclist in Texas is in the hospital after a horrific encounter with a suspected illegal immigrant left her badly maimed.
Austin resident Elizabeth English was in critical condition after last Tuesday night when she was struck by a vehicle in the Texas capitol and dragged for nearly half a mile.
The driver, Artemio Gomez-Avila, 41, initially fled the scene, but police nabbed him the next day in a nearby town.
Witnesses reported hearing screams as Avila continued to drive four tenths of a mile while dragging the cyclist along.
“She didn’t look human,” one witness, Roger Taylor, described to Fox 7 Austin. “She looked like an animal initially. Then after seeing that, we noticed it was a person.”
The extent of English’s injuries were horrific and left her highly susceptible to infection.
“Police records say she lost part of her buttocks, her right pelvis, and her lower spine was exposed,” reports Fox Austin.
Brad Houston, an Austin attorney that represents cyclists, said the accident was one of the worst he’s ever read about.
“Her body was literally being ground down by the pavement, and the driver of the vehicle had to hear it. I’m sure heard it,” Houston told KXAN.
“He was more worried about himself than the fact that he was killing a fellow human being, and that is very disturbing.”
Upon questioning, Avila first claimed he was unaware of the crash, and next blamed his cousin, but later confessed, stating he only felt a “slight bump on the passenger side of the truck.”
Avila is being held at the Travis County Jail on $100,000 bond with an immigration detainer hold. He is charged with failure to render aid.
In a boilerplate statement to Infowars.com, Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not mention Avila’s residency status, previous deportations, or his nation of origin, but the detainer and their comments about “criminal aliens” and “immigration fugitives” suggest he may be subject to deportation.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed a detainer with Travis County Jail on Artemio Gomez-Avla on March 31. ICE is focused on smart and effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of convicted criminal aliens, recent border crossers and immigration fugitives who have failed to comply with final orders of removal issued by the nation’s immigration courts.”
A cursory investigation into Artemio Gomez-Avila shows he’s been arrested three times in the Austin area since 1998, once for DWI, another time for public intoxication and one count of burglarizing a building in 2008.
Elizabeth is recovering well according to a Facebook page set up to update on her progress. Friends have set up a GoFundMe account for her medical expenses which has since raised $31,000.
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