A family in West Texas suffered their worst Thanksgiving ever after an illegal immigrant slammed into their daughter, leaving her dead at the scene.
The incident happened on Thanksgiving morning around 2AM in El Paso.
Sixth-grade teacher Mandy Ferguson Weyant, 28, was using a crosswalk at the corner of Cincinnati and Mesa Street when 24-year-old Joel Velazquez ran a red light.
“That’s when he hit Amanda ‘Mandy’ Ferguson Weyant, who was in the crosswalk, and took off. Police later found his vehicle abandoned on Cincinnati,” reports KFOXTV.com.
Weyant’s family was devastated and blamed Velazquez for destroying their family.
“He’s destroyed my family. My daughter, Mandy, was the glue that held my family in place, she was my everything,” her father Dan Ferguson told local media.
Ferguson was further frustrated by the fact Velazquez fled the scene and didn’t help his daughter.
“I saw where my daughter was hit and where her body was 50 feet from the point of contact. He didn’t even attempt to stop to render aid,” he told KFOX.
The fire department reached out to Ferguson on Saturday to inform him Velazquez had turned himself in.
Moreover, the family learned he was in the country illegally and was out on bond stemming from a 2017 assault.
“It just doesn’t add up, it doesn’t seem to be fair,” Ferguson said.
“Everything was perfect in her life and to have it all taken and senselessly destroyed this is something no parent should go through.”
Students, faculty, friends and family on Friday held a candlelight vigil for Mandy, who had taught at Eastwood Heights Elementary school for five years.
Velazquez’s bond was set at $125,000, but an ICE immigration detainer ensures he will not be eligible for bail.
The tragic event comes as the immigration issue takes the front seat, with illegal migrants from Central America storming the US border at Tijuana.
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