An illegal immigrant is charged with killing four people after allegedly driving while intoxicated the wrong way on a highway before striking another vehicle, Oklahoma authorities said Tuesday.
Michael Rosario-Cruz, 27, was released from a hospital and booked into the Canadian County Jail on a slew of charges, including four counts of second-degree murder, two counts of DUI causing great bodily injury, transporting an open container, firearm possession, carrying firearms while under the influence and driving the wrong way on a one-way road.
Rosario-Cruz was driving early Friday westbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 in Canadian County, when he struck another vehicle head-on, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.
All four people in the struck vehicle, which caught fire, were killed.
They ranged in age from 18 to 20, authorities said.
The victims were identified as Kiercey Hickson, 20, Quincy Jones, 19, and Haliegh Salazar and Brad Palmer, both 18.
“Driving impaired is a reckless, life-changing decision,” the Highway Patrol said in a social media post announcing the charges. “The loss of these young lives will have a lasting impact on countless family members, friends, and communities.”
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol told Fox News Digital that Rosario-Cruz is the subject of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer request, meaning ICE has asked to be notified when he is released from custody so they can arrest him and begin deportation proceedings.
It was not clear when Rosario-Cruz entered the US, nor his country of origin.
Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The four victims were recently remembered at a vigil at El Reno High School, where three of them had recently graduated, News9 reported.
Nancy Salsman, a retired teacher, said three of the victims were once students in her second-grade classroom.
“You just make that connection that never goes away,” she told the news outlet. “They’re always your kids. And when something like this happens we come together.”
