July 31 (UPI) — Authorities in North Carolina said six migrant workers were intentionally run over by a White man driving a sport utility vehicle in a Walmart parking lot.
The incident happened shortly before 1:20 p.m. Sunday at the store at 306 N. Generals Blvd. in Lincolnton, a city of about 12,000 about 38 miles northwest of Charlotte.
The six migrants were struck by what the Lincolnton Police Department said in a statement was a older model midsize SUV driven by an “older White male.”
“The motives of the suspect are still under investigation,” the department said.
Local police said the workers were hit “in what appears to be an intentional assault with a vehicle.”
All six migrants were transported to a local hospital with various injuries; none appeared to be life-threatening.
Police asked for the public’s help in identifying the vehicle and its driver, posting images of the black SUV to its Facebook account that were presumably taken from surveillance footage of the Walmart parking lot.
The incident comes nearly two months after a driver plowed through a group of migrants waiting for a bus in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight people.
A suspect in that case, 34-year-old George Alvarez, has been charged with eight counts of manslaughter and 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
