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A Brownsville, Tex., resident was charged with eight counts of manslaughter Monday after his SUV slammed into a crowd of migrants, killing eight people and injuring 10 others. But police said they had not yet determined whether the act was intentional.

George Alvarez, who police described as having a record that included prior charges of assault and driving while intoxicated, tried to flee the scene after the Sunday morning crash but was apprehended by witnesses, according to police and witnesses. Police Chief Felix Sauceda said in a news conference Monday that the department was awaiting results of formal toxicology tests. Alvarez is not cooperating, police said.

Sauceda said that although authorities were not yet able to establish a motive, they had not “ruled out” an intentional act. Along with the manslaughter counts, he said, Alvarez was charged with 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His bond was set at $3.6 million, the chief said.

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“This was a very tragic incident,” the police chief said.

Saucedo said that “several” of the victims have been identified as Venezuelan nationals, many of whom had only recently crossed the border into Brownsville. Among the victims was a man who had been offering haircuts at the shelter to save money to visit his mother, according to one survivor. Others had tickets to leave that day by bus or plane to reunite with their families across the United States. Those victims had come to the United States fleeing political and financial turmoil that has ravaged Venezuela for years, according to migrant advocates and witnesses.

The Ozanam Center, near where the crash occurred, is the only overnight shelter in the city, serving both migrants and homeless residents. Local officials have been in touch with Venezuelan authorities to help identify the dead and wounded, and coordinate assistance and reunification efforts, Saucedo said.

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The driver’s criminal history includes two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a count of assault against an elderly or disabled person, four counts of assault causing bodily injury to a family member, and at least 11 other charges, according to court records. It was not immediately clear how many of the charges had resulted in convictions.

The crash occurred about 8:30 a.m. local time Sunday, when Alvarez’s vehicle ran a red light and smashed into a bus stop near the shelter. The victims were all male, the police chief said. At least 18 people were struck.

Questions about the cause of the crash began almost immediately.

Luis Herrera, 33, said he was standing at the bus stop in front of the migrant shelter with about 20 other Venezuelans when he saw a woman in a car yelling at them to beware of an SUV behind her that appeared to be out of control, he told The Washington Post in a Monday interview.

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Seconds later, a man with his right hand on the steering wheel and his left hand out of the window, gesturing vulgarly, drove by “speeding like crazy” and shouting expletives, he said.

“He hit the gas and drove by my legs, which made me fall to the ground and hurt my arm,” he said. “He almost killed me, and he killed many of the rest of my friends.”

The man identified by police as Alvarez then jumped from the car and tried to flee, Herrera said. But several men at the scene captured him.

As the witnesses pinned him to the ground, the driver repeatedly shouted, “You are invading my property, get out of my property you … migrants,” Herrera said.

The tragedy comes during a time of crisis and insecurity in the border town of Brownsville.

U.S. officials have set up a village of white tents and portable bathrooms, expecting a surge of migrants due to the expected lifting this week of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed Customs and Border Protection to swiftly expel migrants seeking humanitarian protection at the southern border.

Advocates for migrants said they have been expecting the area to become a flash point, but they never predicted an incident like the crash.

Daniel E. Flores, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, said the Ozanam Center had served immigrants and the homeless for decades. He said the diocese would continue to care for people who have been given permission by the government to stay in the United States.

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“We must resist the corrosive tendency to devalue the lives of immigrants, the poor, and the vulnerable,” Flores said in a statement. “Let us take extra steps as a local community to care for and protect one another, especially the most vulnerable.”

The Venezuela government called on U.S. authorities “to thoroughly investigate and clarify the causes,” of the incident to rule out “hate and xenophobic practices against Venezuelan people … a product of a culture of violence and intolerance promoted by extremist sectors of US politics and society,” according to a statement posted on Twitter by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil.

Victor Maldonado, director of the Ozanam Center, told The Post that the center had not received any threats before the crash, but did afterward.

“I’ve had a couple of people come by the gate and tell the security guard that the reason this happened was because of us,” Maldonado said.

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“We are predominantly Hispanic here in Brownsville and many people living here have their whole families across the border,” Maldonado said. “And most people in the community support our mission to welcome and help these migrants.”

Sister Norma Pimentel, director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, said Monday that the tragedy has left the community — and migrants and witnesses at the Ozanam Center in particular — “in shock.”

“It’s a tragic loss of life, and we have witnessed the pain in everybody; it was horrible,” she said.

Pimentel said she had not seen a rise of anti-immigrant sentiment or violence targeting migrants in recent weeks, ahead of the expected lifting of Title 42.

“I am sure it exists, but it’s not evident and we don’t see it,” she said. “I am sure a lot of people don’t want migrants to come in and see them stranded on the streets, but for the most part Brownsville is a welcoming and caring city and people want to help.”

Mario Saenz, a local migrant-rights activist, attended a vigil organized outside of the Ozanam Center on Monday morning. He described “a somber mood.”

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“It’s hard for everyone here, but particularly the migrants,” he said. “And we all think this was intentional, they are all scared.” Saenz said he had taken two of the injured men hit by the SUV to the hospital, among them Herrera.

The Department of Homeland Security has said it expects border crossings to soar after the end of Title 42 expulsions, atop an already large increase over the past two years. The Biden administration last week ordered 1,500 more active-duty troops to the southern border in response to the expected surge.

Some migrant activists have blamed an anti-migrant tenor on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who has made headlines for transporting migrants to Democratic parts of the country. Last week, he drew condemnation for his decision to identify five victims of a mass killing as “illegal immigrants,” which was not accurate.

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Critics have also assailed Abbott for using inflammatory language such as “invasion” to characterize the border influx, noting that many new arrivals are young workers or children seeking a better life in the United States after fleeing poverty and repression in countries such as Venezuela. Abbott has said that his actions are necessary to defend the federal border.

The dire circumstances in Venezuela have resulted in over 7 million people fleeing since 2015, creating one of the world’s largest immigration crises. Thousands have traveled to the United States — many on foot — passing through several countries and dodging smugglers and cartels.

Herrera said in an interview that many of the victims already had made plans for their futures. Some planned to fly Sunday to Miami and San Antonio to reunite with family members, while others were headed downtown to see relatives who had been released from a migrant detention center at the border.

“We were all so happy,” said Herrera, who had walked for two months from the state of Lara, in the northwest of Venezuela, and arrived in Brownsville four days ago. “And then this happens.”

“We crossed the jungle, suffered hunger and cold, we are poor and then, imagine being killed in an instant for the mere fact of being a migrant,” he said. “It’s not fair.”

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