Illegal immigrant with California driver's license accused of running over grandmother in deadly Virginia carjacking

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador is accused of running over and killing a grandmother with her own vehicle during a deadly carjacking Sunday at a 7-Eleven in Sterling, Virginia.

The male carjacked the vehicle owned by 54-year-old Melody Waldecker of Silver Spring, Maryland, around 11:39 a.m.

'This is another reminder of why it is essential that localities collaborate with our federal counterparts charged with enforcing U.S. immigration laws.'

Witnesses said Waldecker was ejected from her Kia during the carjacking, WUSA-TV reported, citing scanner audio.

With that, the suspect struck Waldecker with her own vehicle and took off, the Loudon County Sheriff's Office said in a press release. The grandmother was pronounced dead at the crime scene.

Waldecker's son told WUSA she was on her way home from visiting her mother at a nursing home when she made a stop at the convenience store.

WUSA reporter Matthew Torres posted video on X from a local resident showing the alleged stolen vehicle screeching and speeding down a residential street.

Law enforcement took the suspect — identified as 21-year-old Jose Aguilar-Martinez — into custody at 12:17 p.m.

The suspect was transported to a hospital after "appearing to have an unrelated medical condition." He was then taken to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center in Leesburg.

Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin reported that Aguilar-Martinez has been charged with felony carjacking. Melugin added that more charges are expected, and the suspect is being held without bail.

On Wednesday, the Loudon County Sheriff's Office confirmed in a news release that Aguilar-Martinez is an illegal immigrant.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told Fox News that Aguilar-Martinez entered the U.S. as a "gotaway" at an unknown date and location.

ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations has placed a detainer request for him to be handed over to immigration authorities upon his release from local custody.

The El Salvadorian illegal alien did not have a fixed address but did have a California driver's license, according to the Loudon County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Mike Chapman from Loudoun County stated, "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. This is another reminder of why it is essential that localities collaborate with our federal counterparts charged with enforcing U.S. immigration laws."

The Loudon County Sheriff's Office noted that it cooperates with the Homeland Security Investigations and ICE "as a matter of practice."

The sheriff's office stated that ICE had issued 479 detainers for non-citizens arrested in Loudoun County for other offenses in the fiscal years of 2023 and 2024.

This is the second deadly carjacking in Virginia in two weeks. On July 20, 37-year-old Jose Vasquez Galvan was killed in Dumfries after a suspect carjacked his Lexus and ran him over during the escape.

Too close for comfort

Blaze News on Tuesday reported about a Honduran national with multiple immigration detainers against him and at least one assault and battery conviction to his name who allegedly beat a man to death in Fairfax County, Virginia, earlier this month.

Thing is, ICE reportedly filed multiple immigration detainers against the suspect with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center — but ICE said the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office refused to honor the detainers, WJLA-TV reported.

Chapman commented in regard to this case that "we need to make sure that we're not keeping these people in our community that can do further harm. It makes no sense to me to allow these people to stay in the area and then commit another crime if we know for a fact that they're violent and that they're here illegally."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!