Driver charged for plowing car into migrant workers outside NC Walmart fled 'in a panic'

A 68-year-old man who plowed his SUV into a group of six migrant workers outside a Walmart in Lincolnton, North Carolina on Sunday turned himself into police Monday evening, saying he accidentally hit the gas while trying to park and fled in a panic, police said.

The man, Daniel Gonzalez, of Hickory, North Carolina, was arrested and charged with a felony hit-and-run after he arrived at the police station just before 6 p.m. together with several family members, the Lincolnton Police Department said in a statement.

The family said Gonzalez had contacted them earlier that day to say he had been in “an accident” while parking at Walmart, and “hit the gas by accident,” according to police. He also told his family he “panicked and left the scene,” police said.

On Sunday, police said what appeared to be “an intentional assault” took place just after 1:15 p.m. in Lincolnton, a city of less than 12,000 people about 30 miles northwest of Charlotte, noting that they had reviewed footage of Gonzalez crossing a median before hitting the group of migrant workers.

All of the workers were transported to Atrium Health Lincoln, where they were treated for “various injuries” that were not life-threatening and released Sunday, police said. They had no apparent connection with Gonzalez, Maj. Brian R. Greene of the Lincolnton Police Department said by phone Sunday.

On Monday, Gonzalez was cooperating with detectives and had received a $50,000 bond, police said.

The attack follows a deadly crash in May in which the driver of a Range Rover barreled into a crowd of migrants in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight of them. That driver was arrested and charged with manslaughter and other charges.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.