Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, R.I.P. -- Man Killed by Truck After ICE Encounter in Florida Was Visiting From Mexico (David Ovalle, NY Times, July 19, 2026)

Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán died in St. Augustine on a valid tourist visa. He was a Mexican citizen with a family who owned a restaurant in Guanajuato, to which one of my Memphis State U. law professors retired, after falling in love with the place (as Brian and I did with St. Augustine). 

From The New York Times: 

Man Killed by Truck After ICE Encounter in Florida Was Visiting From Mexico

A Central Florida nonprofit group identified the man as Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán and said he had planned to return home to his family.

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A man lays a bouquet of flowers during a vigil for Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán in St. Augustine, Fla.Credit...Kelly Jordan/Associated Press

By David Ovalle

Reporting from Miami

By David Ovalle

Reporting from Miami

July 19, 2026, 12:45 p.m. ET

A man fatally hit by a truck in Florida while running from an encounter with immigration agents was visiting from Mexico, according to a nonprofit organization supporting his widow.

A spokeswoman for the organization identified the man as Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, 28, of Guanajuato State.

State and federal officials have repeatedly declined to identify the man who was killed last Tuesday when he ran on to a busy roadway and was struck by a tractor-trailer. The man was fleeing an encounter with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations at a Wawa gas station in St. Augustine, Fla.

The nonprofit, Colectivo Árbol, which supports farmworkers in Central Florida, is hosting the man’s wife, who arrived from Mexico on Friday to claim his body, said the group’s spokeswoman, Isaret Jeffers.

Ms. Jeffers said that, according to Mr. Coronilla’s wife, he was visiting on a valid tourist visa and had planned to return to his home country on Saturday. The New York Times could not independently verify the claim.

Homeland Security officials did not respond to questions on Saturday about Mr. Coronilla’s visa status or the circumstances that preceded his death.

Mr. Coronilla died shortly after ICE agents, in two unrelated instances, shot and killed immigrants during attempted traffic stops in Houston and Biddeford, Maine. The deaths have again heightened scrutiny on ICE tactics amid an escalation of President Trump’s campaign to detain and deport immigrants.

The Department of Homeland Security officials have cast the two shootings as cases of self-defense; no video footage of the shootings has emerged so far. The officials have also said little about what unfolded at the Wawa in St. Augustine.

Mr. Coronilla and three others had been in a vehicle at the gas station, a highway patrol spokesman said last week. The whereabouts of the other three people remain unknown.

Ms. Jeffers, the nonprofit spokeswoman, said Mr. Coronilla was the father of two young children and had been married for a decade. She said his wife was working with the Mexican Consulate in Orlando to arrange for his body to be returned home.

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Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, 28, of Guanajuato State, Mexico, was visiting the United States when he was fatally hit by a tractor-trailer truck after fleeing an encounter with immigration agents.Credit...Colectivo Árbol

Ms. Jeffers said that, according to Mr. Coronilla’s wife, her husband had been in the United States for three weeks with friends, first in Georgia and then in Florida, but just for a couple of days.

Mr. Coronilla ran a restaurant in his hometown, San Luis de la Paz, Ms. Jeffers said. “He didn’t want to stay in the United States,” she said. “He didn’t want to leave his children.”

A motorist who rendered aid to Mr. Coronilla told The New York Times that she saw a uniformed St. Johns County deputy in his marked patrol car pursuing the man as he ran on the busy road in front of the gas station. A St. Johns County police spokeswoman on Friday did not respond to questions about whether a deputy was involved in the incident.

Sara Atkinson, 42, said Mr. Coronilla ran past her car as she was turning before the truck plowed into him in the opposite lanes. He appeared to be fleeing toward a wooded area, she said.

Ms. Atkinson, a veterinarian nurse, said she pulled over and rushed to the man, who was gasping for air under the truck. She said she frantically tried chest compressions, urging him to keep fighting, before paramedics arrived and he succumbed to his injuries.

“I want his family to know he didn’t die alone,” Ms. Atkinson said through tears. “I was with him.”