GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Family has identified the man who died in a car crash on Sunday after he fled from an attempted traffic stop conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mario David Coronado Juarez, 36, a husband and father of three, had been working construction jobs in Grand Rapids for more than five years, sending the money he earned back to his family in Guatemala.
Juarez, according to family, was undocumented.
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On Wednesday, FOX 17's Cassandra Alonso and I spoke with Juarez's wife, Masadonia, over the phone about the life her husband lived.
"He liked to work," said Masadonia, whose words have been translated from Spanish to English. "He liked to do his job. He would wake up early to do his job."
While Grand Rapids and Guatemala are separated by nearly two thousand miles, Juarez made the distance feel smaller by calling his family every day.
On Sunday, Masadonia never got that routine ring.
"I just felt sad because he didn't call me," she said. "Then I told my kids, 'I don't know why your dad isn't calling.' They started to cry."
That morning, according to the Grand Rapids Police Department, Juarez had been the target of a traffic stop conducted by ICE agents near Hall Street and Century Avenue.
The department said Juarez sped away from the stop and, around a mile down the road, crashed into a tree near McKendrick Street and Century Avenue.
His car caught on fire and he died at the scene.
Grand Rapids
Police: Driver fled attempted ICE stop before fatal Grand Rapids crash
"I feel bad because we were used to talking to him every day," Masadonia said. "He always asked for his kids. He always worried about his kids."
Masadonia called her husband a "good father" to his 13- and 11-year-old daughters and 7-year-old son.
Now, she and her family are raising money to return Juarez's body to Guatemala, "where he can be laid to rest with his loved ones," according to the family's page on the crowdfunding platform Chuffed.
"[I hope people] can find it in their hearts to support us, find it in their hearts to support my family," Masadonia said. "We are left alone without Mario."
Michigan State Police has announced it is investigating what led to the deadly crash and the Grand Rapids Police Department, whose traffic unit investigators are also looking into the incident, has said it had no involvement in and no knowledge of the crash before being called to the crash site.
On Wednesday, an employee at the ICE Field Office in Grand Rapids directed me to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's media line for ICE-related inquiries.
As of the publication of this article, the department has not responded to a pair of requests for comment.
A vigil for Juarez is scheduled to be held at the site of the crash on Thursday at 7:40 p.m.
