Dramatic bodycam footage shows Texas border cops pursuing an alleged human smuggler in a high speed car chase before he gets out on foot and tackles him to the ground.
Roque Flores, of Eagle Pass, was arrested on May 13, and charged with smuggling of persons and evading arrest, according to Lieutenant Chris Olivarez, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Texas state troopers released the dramatic footage on Monday, capturing a high-speed car chase and a subsequent foot pursuit in Maverick County, leading to Flores’ arrest.
The trooper is heard on the footage, yelling, ‘Come here! I’m going to get you!’
The incident began when a trooper spotted a Mercedes-Benz speeding on US-277.
The dashboard camera video shows the trooper making a swift U-turn to pursue the vehicle, resulting in a tense chase down an empty road.
The trooper can then be heard shouting, ‘Oh, he’s hauling a**,’ as the Mercedes accelerates away.
The chase intensifies as the suspect pulls over onto a property, forcing the trooper to execute a sharp left turn, tires screeching.
The officer then leaps from his vehicle, initiating a foot pursuit.
The trouper shouted as he chased the suspect: ‘Come here! I’m going to get you! You better stop! Hey, you’re not getting away!’
He then calls out in Spanish to the fleeing suspect.
The suspect, who had been running, eventually stops and walks toward the officer. He silently turns around and lies on the ground, crossing his wrists behind his back for handcuffing.
The trooper then radios his colleagues to inform them of the pursuit and his location.
Flores, a suspected illegal immigrant from Honduras, is now in custody of the US Border Control.
Another city is becoming a hotbed for migrant crossings.
It was announced this week that San Diego is the new ground zero for the border crisis in the U.S., seeing the most migrant apprehensions of anywhere else in the country last month.
At least 37,370 migrants entered the US through the San Diego sector, which includes all of Southern California except for El Centro on the Arizona state line, according to the US Border Patrol.
In April, the San Diego region surpassed Tucson, which had been the nation’s busiest, and fell to second with 31,219 border encounters.
El Paso sector, which includes the West Texas city and all of New Mexico, rose to third with 30,393.
San Diego’s rise to the number one border hotspot had been expected, as the area had been getting bombarded with as many as 6,000 to 8,000 border crossers a week in the last few months.
‘Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,’ San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond told DailyMail.com last month.
‘Texas is clamping down and other areas are clamping down. Here in California, they’re allowed to walk in unimpeded. They’re going to follow the path of least resistance, and the least resistance is in California.’
In fact, the Del Rio Sector, which includes the Texas city by the same name and Eagle Pass, had long been the top spot in the entire nation since 2021.
In January, Texas’ governor cracked down illegal crossings by seizing a park that was known as the place for migrants to enter through.
Gov. Greg Abbott also kicked Border Patrol agents out of the land, claiming the federal government was doing enough to stop migrants from coming in.
While Abbott’s actions are credited for the shift, drug cartels have more influence on where migrants cross.