46 dead migrants found in tractor-trailer in Texas 6/28/22 Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:00)
46 people have been found dead, 16 hospitalized in the back of a semi truck. We do have our reporters on the ground who are covering this story for us here on Live Now from Fox. We do want to head out to the latest report from Jackie Ibanez, who walks us through all of the details of this ongoing investigation,

Jackie Ibanez: (00:23)
A troubling and gruesome discovery in San Antonio, Texas Monday, after the bodies of at least 46 dead migrants were located inside the back of an 18-wheeler abandoned near a railroad track.

Ron Nirenberg: (00:35)
We are dealing with a horrific tragedy.

Officers say a worker in a nearby facility, heard a cry for help, came out to investigate and found the trailer with the doors partially open. Law enforcement and first responders flooding the scene were then able to rush more than a dozen survivors to the hospital.

Charles Hood: (00:53)
We were able to transport 16 people. 12 of those are adults and four pediatric. They were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion, no signs of water in the vehicle, no visible working AC unit on that rig.

Speaker 5: (01:10)
With the heat that we have every day in Texas, you can imagine the temperatures inside one of the tractor trailer, it’s going to be 150 plus degrees.

At least three suspects are now in custody, as the federal investigation into what’s believed to be a human smuggling attempt continues.

Speaker 5: (01:30)
These individuals have no care and no at all for human life, so they put them in the back of the tractor trailers. The individuals don’t know where they are, where they’re going.

The discovery highlighting the dangers of illegal immigration, as customs and border protection officials note an increase in reported deaths along the Southwest border. A similar event also occurred in San Antonio back in 2017, when 10 migrants died after being trapped inside a tractor trailer. Jackie Ibanez, Fox News.

Speaker 1: (02:04)
Thank you to Jackie for that update. We do want to play for you the latest police update from the San Antonio Police Chief, who did address the media overnight. Let’s take a listen.

A horrific human tragedy, so I would urge you all to think compassionately and pray for the deceased, the ailing, the families, and we hope that those responsible for putting these people in such inhumane conditions are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So, this is a federal investigation, but I’m going to turn it over to Chief McManus to talk a little bit about the city’s initial response, and you’ll hear from Chief hood as well, and then Council Member Rocha Garcia will provide some for our Spanish media

William McManus: (02:58)
Thank you Mayor. So, I want to emphasize that this is preliminary information, and it could change. So, the first call came in at about 10 minutes to six, this afternoon. A Worker who works in one of the buildings up here behind me, heard a cry for help, came out to investigate, found the trailer with the doors partially opened, opened them up to take a look, and found a number of deceased individuals inside. So, we have three people in custody. We don’t know if they are absolutely connected to this or not. This investigation has been turned over to HSI. It is now a federal investigation. Turned it over to them about probably two hours ago, but right now we’ve got three folks in custody, and again, this is all preliminary information, and I want to turn it over to Chief Hood.

Good evening. Charles Hood, San Antonio Fire Department. At approximately six this evening, San Antonio Fire Department responded to 9600 Quintana Road for a report of a dead person. Engine 52 arrived and found the trailer, as Chief McManus mentioned, with a body outside and several that they could visibly see inside once the doors were opened. At this time, we have processed approximately 46 bodies that have been triaged and tagged and declared deceased at this time. Fortunately, we were able to transport 16 people, 12 of those are adults and four pediatric. All of them were conscious at the time upon transportation. First patient was transported at seven minutes after six, with the last one being transported at 6:57. So, a mass casualty, with the triage involved, it went very smoothly and very quickly. The patients that we saw were hot to the touch. They were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion. No signs of water in the vehicle.

It was a refrigerated tractor trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig. At this time, we have released all our companies back in service. We used approximately about 60 firefighters, 20 fire engines, and 10 medic units, of which we transported to various local hospitals throughout this city. So, it is our hope and prayer that the conditions of those that were transported will improve as we speak. We are currently putting 60 members through critical incidents stress debriefing. Again, we’re not supposed to open up a truck, and see stacks of bodies in there. None of us come to work imagining that. So, we’re working through the behavioral health for our folks right now. I’ll turn this back over to Dr. Garcia and answer any questions that you may have later.

Joey: (06:18)
Could you just confirm that, the numbers that you just gave?

Yes, sir. 16 transported, 12 of those adults, four pediatric, and 46 that are deceased.

Joey: (06:33)
Chief, what were the conditions of those that were transferred?

All heat-related injuries and no fatalities of peds that we know of. Thank you.

Rocha Garcia: (06:55)
[Spanish 00:06:55].

Speaker 1: (06:55)
If you are just joining us, we were listening back into the latest police update from San Antonio Police and also the San Antonio Fire Department. This is a translation of this press conference in Spanish, but the update just provided us some details as to the death toll, and also the hospitalization toll. 46 people found dead in the back of an 18-wheeler truck in San Antonio, Texas. 16 people were hospitalized. The fire chief there confirming that 12 of those 16 people were adults. Four of them were children. These 16 people were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion. He did also confirm that none of the children had passed away. There were no pediatric fatalities at the time of this press conference, so we will continue to work to get you all of the details here on Live Now from Fox. Now that the Spanish translation has ended, we do want to send you back out to listen in to some of these question and answers.

This is the largest that’s been in this city, as far as I could recall.

Joey: (08:09)
Can you clarify whether these three people in custody, were they drivers? Were they among the group?

Yeah, I’m, I’m not going to get into that, because it’s now a federal investigation. That’s in HSI’s ballpark right now.

Joey: (08:22)
Is SAPD assisting the feds in looking for anyone at this point?

We offered any kind of assistance that they needed. They’re handling it by themselves right now.

Speaker 8: (08:32)
Do you know where these were coming from, where they were going? We heard some reports of people maybe seeing some of these folks, individuals running.

No, we came across this truck after the call came in.

Speaker 11: (09:24)
[Spanish 00:09:24].

Rocha Garcia: (09:24)
[Spanish 00:09:24]

Speaker 13: (09:24)
Can you talk about-

Speaker 8: (09:27)
Could you tell the condition of the people that have been sent to the hospital or what state they’re in, how bad it was? Do you have some that are just that all right? Do you-

All of them that left in our ambulances, we’re very hopeful that they’re going to survive. In a triage situation like this- we made sure that everyone that we came across, all those 46, we put them on a 12 lead monitor to make sure that there were no signs of life, no electrical activity whatsoever. We found that in them, but the ones that we did transport, we do hope that they’re all going to survive. They were again, suffering from heat exhaustion, heat stroke, the same things that any of us would get if we’re out in the elements for long period of time without any water. But again, we’re hoping that they’re all going to survive. A couple of the peds that we sent off last, again, they were conscious and alert, but just again, very weak. None of these people were able to extricate themselves out of the truck, so they were still in there awaiting help when we arrived.

Speaker 8: (10:27)
Were there any air holes in the truck or anything like that?

None that I’ve noticed, and again, interestingly enough, we had the hot truck a couple years ago, and you could see things like that, but we really didn’t notice anything with this truck.

Joey: (10:38)
Chief, you said they weren’t able to extricate themselves out. What do you mean by, were they not able to-

Joey, meaning just being too weak, weakened state to actually get out and help themselves.

Speaker 14: (10:49)
Do you know how they got out? [inaudible 00:10:52] they found on the ground,

Some got out, again, but we don’t know all of that, but again, the majority people that we transported, we helped them out, and made sure they were transported to the appropriate facilities.

Speaker 8: (11:03)
Do you have any idea how long they had been in there based on what their-

No, I don’t have any idea at this time.

Speaker 8: (11:09)
What are the ages of the pediatric [inaudible 00:11:11]?

I don’t know. We’re checking on that. Again, I don’t want to be too specific on that, but they are teenagers, young adults that we found.

Tony: (11:22)
[inaudible 00:11:22] with the Mexican Consulate or something like that?

Not to my knowledge. I think that’s being attempted right now.

Joey: (11:29)
Do you know if any of these folks are migrants? Are they-

I have no idea, Joey.

Joey: (11:33)
Okay. Chief, are these mostly men? Are they women? Is it a mix of-

It’s going to be a mix. Absolutely a mix and going up, looking at the scene, there’s a mix of males and females that are deceased.

Joey: (11:46)
Any of the dead are children?

No, that we found. We have not found any dead pediatrics at this time.

Tony: (11:53)
I can see somebody with a Mexican Consulate. Can you just to let us know why [Spanish 00:12:01].

Tony, what’s your question?

Tony: (12:06)
Yeah. I can see somebody with a Mexican government over here and why is … Do we know if they’re Mexicans and that [inaudible 00:12:17]

I don’t know that, Tony.

Speaker 8: (12:18)
Did they have any IDs?

That I don’t know either.

Joey: (12:22)
Chief, are you able to tell us any of their national origins? Do you know if were American citizens?

No, not at this point.

Speaker 8: (12:27)
Do you know what language they communicated in?

I don’t.

Speaker 16: (12:30)
Do you know if they were coming from Laredo, or-

I don’t.

Speaker 8: (12:33)
When this truck was found, it was on the side of the road, but the three suspects that are in custody are, were still there. So, did you think that it just happened?

Actually, they weren’t.

Speaker 8: (12:43)
Okay.

So, but beyond that, I’m going to leave it vague.

Speaker 8: (12:46)
Okay.

Again, this is an HSI federal investigation right now, and beyond the general details of what happened, and who was injured, how many were injured, we’re not going to go into anything further than that.

Speaker 8: (12:57)
Is HSI already on the ground?

HSI was here probably three and a half hours ago, and we spoke and within about 45 minutes after that, they took over the investigation.

Joey: (13:13)
Chief, are you confident that everybody who was in the truck has been accounted for? There’s no-

No, I’m not. We had our canines out here going through the woods, and we may have to do that again tomorrow in the light of day.

Speaker 8: (13:27)
So, is there any indication as to how many people were at one point in that truck?

No.

Tony: (13:33)
I have a question for the mayor. Mayor, a couple of years ago, [inaudible 00:13:41] helping migrants, giving water, we noticed that there is a lot of them now kind of stopping in [inaudible 00:13:51]. Is there any idea to redo the same thing or [inaudible 00:13:57]

Yeah. We have been working to assist migrants who are here seeking asylum as we have throughout the year, every year. We know that there’s been increasing volumes over the last six months, 12 months related to the policies. But our work again, is to provide humanitarian assistance. This is a far different situation than what we see.

Joey: (14:29)
What areas can the city do for those 16? What can the city do for those 16 who are in the hospital? What can the city do for them?

Well, I mean, they’re going to provide medical aid and try to revive the folks, and make sure that they get healthy. Beyond that, this again is a federal investigation, and so related to what happens with that part of it, we’re going to have to wait for the federal teams to brief us.

Speaker 8: (14:54)
Mayor, what is your reaction? This might be one of the deadliest [inaudible 00:14:59] investigations, and it’s happening right here in our community.

It’s tragic. There are, that we know of, 46 individuals who are no longer with us, who had families, who were likely trying to find a better life, and we have 16 folks who are fighting for the lives in the hospital. Our focus right now is to try to bring aid to them as best we can. But this is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy.

Speaker 17: (15:36)
One more question.

Joey: (15:38)
Mayor, this is not the first time this has happened. In 2017, there were 10 people found dead in a Walmart, and we see smuggling incidences like this happen all the time. What can the city do to help prevent these from happening again, because they keep happening?

Well, you’re asking how do we solve the migration crisis in North America? I don’t know if the city has the answer to that. Our job is not to ask why. Our job is to ask how we can help, and so that’s what you’re seeing with the medical assistance. Then as far as the federal investigation goes, that’s in the hands of the feds. Then, I’m sure there’ll be more questions, and hopefully some answers as we move forward.

Speaker 17: (16:31)
Thank you all very much guys. That’s it. Thank you.

Joey: (16:32)
Is there anybody from HSI?

Speaker 1: (16:35)
That was the latest update from San Antonio officials on the ground after they discovered 46 people dead, 16 hospitalized inside of an abandoned tractor trailer. We did just get new details from that update. 16 were transported to the hospital as previously reported, but we got some more details on their demographics. 12 were adults, four of them were children suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion. We did also get a bit of the investigation portion towards the [inaudible 00:17:10] from the police chief, answering a question about three suspects being in custody. They were not found at the scene, but he did then not reveal any additional information as this is now a Homeland Security investigation. We’ll work to get you more updates here from San Antonio. But once again, 46 migrants found dead, 16 additional hospitalized.

46 dead migrants found in tractor-trailer in Texas 6/28/22 Transcript

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