Uvalde Border Patrol mechanic heard gunman crash truck, open fire, thought it was illegal immigrant

UVALDE, Texas – A U.S. Border Patrol mechanic who lives in Uvalde, Texas, was at home on his lunch break Tuesday morning when a black truck sped down his quiet street at 50 to 60 miles per hour.

“At that time, I just thought, ‘It’s an illegal,'” Miguel Zamora told Fox News Digital, noting Uvalde’s close proximity to the southern border. “Here in a couple of seconds, we’ll see border patrol, something like that chasing him, and I never saw anything like that.”

Zamora would later find out that the driver of that black truck was Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old suspected of gunning down 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary school on Tuesday.

Moments after the truck zipped by his home, located just a block down from where Ramos is accused of shooting his grandmother in the face, Zamora said he heard what sounded like a massive crash.

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“Then you heard the impact. It sounded really, super close. From what I heard, it was a very solid impact,” he told Fox News Digital. “He may have attempted to slam on the brakes, or maybe he tried to make, you know, a turn and just quite couldn’t make it.”

Authorities on Thursday provided a timeline of Ramos’s actions, saying he crashed the pickup truck at 11:28 a.m., then exited the vehicle with a rifle and started firing on people near a funeral home before making his way into the school.

Zamora said he then heard two “pops” after the crashing sound that he thought may have been firecrackers.

“Twenty, 15 seconds later, we heard a big bang, several, like maybe eight or nine rounds,” Zamora said. “Pretty fast, one right after the other.”

Authorities said Ramos entered the school at around 11:40 p.m. where he fired “numerous” shots before unleashing a barrage of gunfire. He was killed by responding officers.

When left to return to work at around 11:50 p.m., law enforcement vehicles began coming down his street toward the school, Zamora said, and several police vehicles were already at the home of Ramos’ grandparents.

The sight of illegal migrants in Uvalde is not uncommon.

The city is located some 55 miles east of the U.S.-Mexico border. Local schools sometimes have to lockdown because of people being arrested after crossing the border illegally, the sister of Tess Mata, one of the 19 children killed, told the Washington Post.