The man accused of carjacking and then running over a woman in the Virginia suburbs last weekend is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, police confirmed Wednesday.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said Jose Aguilar-Martinez, 21, who has no fixed local address, was arraigned Tuesday on carjacking charges in connection to the deadly car theft that killed Silver Spring resident Melody Waldecker.
Police said they expect more charges to be brought against the suspect as their investigation continues. A judge ordered him to be jailed without bond at his initial hearing.
“This is a horrific tragedy, and we mourn the death of Melody Waldecker as the result of the heinous actions by a suspect in our nation illegally,” Sheriff Mike Chapman said in a statement. “This is another reminder of why it is essential that localities collaborate with our federal counterparts charged with enforcing U.S. immigration laws.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they issued a detainer request on Mr. Aguilar-Martinez, though an ICE spokesman said the suspect could face serious prison time following Sunday morning’s fatal encounter.
Authorities said they chased down Mr. Aguilar-Martinez after he allegedly forced the victim out of her car and rammed into her in Sterling.
Ms. Waldecker, 54, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The sheriff’s office said Mr. Aguilar-Martinez had a California driver’s license at the time of his arrest and was recently staying in Sterling.
ICE said there is no record of when or where the suspect entered the U.S.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office cooperates with the federal agency to help deport illegal immigrants, which is an outlier on that matter among local police departments in the D.C. metro area.
The non-cooperators include neighboring Fairfax County, where a Honduran national linked to a slaying last week had already been handcuffed multiple times by police but never handed over to federal authorities for deportation.
ICE officials told ABC affiliate WJLA-TV that Maudin Anibal Guzman-Videz was taken into custody on assault-related charges in both March and June, yet requests from the federal agency to keep him detained went unanswered.
He was charged with killing Nicacio Hernandez Gonzalez, 47, less than a month after his latest arrest.
The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office told the station that 725 illegal immigrants have been held in the county prison over the past year. Only three were transferred over to ICE custody.
Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said ICE issued 479 detainers in the past two years for illegal immigrants who committed crimes in the county.
Authorities were able to track down 248 of the illegal immigrants, of whom 96 were eventually deported.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.