Teen driver with undocumented immigrants causes blaze (Corpus-Christi Caller Times)

Teen driver with undocumented immigrants causes blaze

By Mike Baird (Contact)

Originally published 03:03 p.m., March 20, 2008

CORPUS CHRISTI — A Nueces County sheriff’s chase about midnight early Thursday morning ended with about a dozen undocumented immigrants scrambling through a fiery field while the driver and two occupants were caught, police said.
A deputy on patrol trailed a white 2004 Dodge 4-door pickup for about five miles from the western part of the county after the driver ran a red light at State Highway 286 and Farm-to-Market Road 43.
“He was alerted earlier in the evening by radio that a vehicle of that same description could be carrying undocumented aliens,” said Capt. Stan Repka, public affairs officer for the sheriff’s department.
The deputy tried to use emergency lights to stop the driver at the intersection of 286 and Saratoga Boulevard, but the driver fled west on Saratoga for about a mile before turning into a brushy field in the 500 block.
“The exhaust or catalytic converter on the car caught the brush on fire, and then the brush fire caught the car on fire,” said Battalion Chief Wayne Prall, with Corpus Christi Fire Department. It took four engine companies with about 18 firefighters about an hour to simmer the blaze that damaged about one acre, he said.
The driver, Jose Antonio Pineda-Torres, 18, of Mexico, and two undocumented male immigrants were arrested. A precinct one constable helped catch the two occupants after responding to the deputy’s request for backup.
Pineda-Torres was arrested for evading and resisting arrest and was taken to Nueces County Jail, Repka said. The two occupants, both citizens of Mexico, were turned over to U.S. Border Patrol.
Border patrol would not release the men’s names, ages or state of residence, said Oscar Saldaña, spokesman for the Rio Grande Valley sector.
“If they have no criminal history they will be granted an option of voluntary return to Mexico,” Saldaña said. “As for the driver, he could be detained for the district attorney to charge and prosecute or if found criminal for transporting illegals could be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.