The man who used a vehicle to run over a Dallas, Texas, police officer is an illegal alien who has been deported three times over the past 11 years.
Eduardo Gonzalez-Rios, 29, is in the Dallas County jail after being treated for his gunshot wound, the Dallas Morning News (DMN) reported. He is currently being held on three counts of aggravated assault on a public servant and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials placed a detainer on him.
Dallas Police Corporal Ed Lujan was working an off-duty job and was in uniform at the time of the incident. After Gonzalez-Rios was escorted out of a night club where Lujan was working, officers escorted him to his vehicle. Gonzalez-Rios then allegedly backed his SUV into one officer. He then drove forward, jumping a curb, and completely ran over Corporal Lujan. Witnesses reported that Gonzalez-Rios then backed over Lujan again before other officers fired their weapons at Gonzalez-Rios, striking him in the arm.
Lujan is in an area hospital where he is recovering from the multiple injuries sustained in this incident. He is suffering from a broken sternum, nose, ribs, tibia and ankle, along with a fractured vertebra and skull, officials of the Greater Dallas National Latino Law Enforcement Organization told the DMN.
ICE officials reported that Gonzalez-Rios had been deported on three previous occasions. The first deportation was in Harlingen, Texas, in 2004. He was issued an expedited removal and returned to Mexico on the same day. About six months later, he was again found in the Harlingen area and was again deported on the same day. In 2011, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok told the DMN that Gonzalez-Rios was found in Kansas City, Missouri in 2011. He was held for two weeks and then deported. Officials are not sure when he re-entered the country this time.
The Dallas County jail has been notified by ICE that they have placed a detainer on Gonzalez-Rios. However, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez announced in October that she was scaling back on honoring ICE detainers, Breitbart Texas previously reported. The Sheriff said she would consider ICE detainers on a case by case basis without regard to whether a felony or misdemeanor crimes had been committed.
Her words prompted a strong reaction from Texas Governor Greg Abbott who said, in another article by Breitbart Texas, Sanctuary City policies would “no longer be tolerated in Texas.” Just last week, Governor Abbott went a step further and actually stripped state grant funding from any Texas county jail that followed Sanctuary City policies.
Corporal Lujan is said to be in good spirits despite the obviously painful injuries sustained in the incident.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
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