Man killed after fleeing ICE encounter near St. Augustine gas station

A 28-year-old man died after running onto State Road 16 while fleeing a federal immigration encounter outside a gas station and convenience store in St. Augustine, Florida, early Tuesday, authorities said.

Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Dylan Bryan said the man was one of four occupants in a vehicle that stopped in the parking lot near State Road 16 and Green Acres Road, at the Wawa gas station in St. Johns County. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations encountered the group there. All four ran on foot.

Bryan said the man headed onto State Road 16 and was struck by a semitrailer truck. The crash was first reported at about 6:42 a.m., shortly after the encounter began near the busy roadside parking lot. The truck driver stopped immediately and tried to render aid, but first responders pronounced the man dead at the scene.

Florida Highway Patrol said the case remained under investigation. The Department of Homeland Security had not issued a statement by Tuesday, leaving key questions unanswered about what led the group to stop and why the encounter escalated so quickly into a fatal chase.

The death carried wider significance because it was the third in about a week tied to encounters with ICE agents, following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine. That sequence has intensified scrutiny over how immigration enforcement actions unfold in public spaces, especially when fear and flight can push a routine stop onto a roadway with deadly consequences.