Posted on 05/02/2021 9:50:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Jeff Stephenson, Supervisor United States Border Patrol Agent, said every indication points this was a smuggling vessel used to smuggle migrants into the U.S. illegally
“Our goal was just to rescue everyone we can from the water and on the beach and get them out safely and get them transported to the hospital as quickly as we can," Romero said.
On Sunday night, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed in a statement that 29 people had been accounted for, with 24 people found alive, four declared dead, and one person who was last reported to be in critical condition.
Earlier Sunday, the SDFD said the injured were taken to area hospitals for treatment, including Sharp Memorial, Palomar Medical Center West, Alvarado, UCSD Medical Center, Grossmont Hospital, Kaiser Clairemont Mesa, Kaiser Zion and Paradise Valley Hospital.
The people transferred to the hospitals suffered a wide range of injuries, Romero said.
Officials reported two women and one man had died, but did not release their names as their families have not yet been notified. The gender of the fourth person was not yet released.
Nick Vonesch witnessed dozens of ambulances and fire trucks heading towards the scene and called it "biggest search and rescue thing I’ve ever seen. It is a little scary."
It was not immediately clear what caused the incident.
Jeff Stephenson, supervisor of the United States Border Patrol Agent, said every indication points to this was a smuggling vessel used to smuggle migrants into the U.S. illegally.
Stephenson described the boat as being “severely overcrowded" and said USBP was not aware of the boat before the incident and believes they may have blended in with other commercial boats as they did not present any red flags.
"The man who we believe was the operator, agents are with him, and is the suspected smuggler, but the investigation is still unfolding,” Stephenson said.
Days earlier, USBP Chief Agent Aaron M. Heitke said the agency had recently seen an increase in the number of illegal crossings at sea and would be ramping up coastal patrols this weekend as a result.
“We were putting more resources out in the water to interdict vessels like this and we announced it in advance to try to deter as much as we could to try and send a message to smugglers," Stephenson said.
Neither a description of the victims nor their nationalities has not yet been released. The San Diego Mexican Consulate is currently in contact with officials involved in the investigation in case the victims are Mexican nationals.
Michael Kramer, a boater who was biking in the Cabrillo area at the time, said inexperienced boaters often have difficulty navigating around Point Loma.
"This is a really tricky area sailing out of the San Diego Harbor and coming around the point here," Kramer said. "There’s a lot of rogue waves and what not and there's a shoal further on out. You really have to sail out about a mile to two miles before you hang a right and start going up the coast and people get into trouble all the time because they take it too close."
State Assemblyman Chris Ward witnessed the boat crash when he and his family were out at the tidepools. Ward tweeted he was "shaken" by the horrible tragedy and that it was traumatic to witness the violent capsizing and people pouring out into the ocean.
He thanked all the agencies who worked to rescue the passengers on the vessel. Ward also tweeted he is furious about the circumstances that forced these individuals to put themselves into harm’s way.
The U.S. Coast Guard, San Diego Harbor Police, San Diego Fire-Rescue and SDFD Lifeguards, San Diego Fire Department, Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations, Office of Field Operations, Homeland Security Investigations and National Park Service assisted in the rescue.
Investigators have not yet said where the boat was coming from or where it was headed.
The Coast Guard will continue searching through the night.
Suspected smuggling boat capsizes off Point Loma killing 3, injuring 27 (Video)
Silly people, going through all this to come to a country that is working like hell to be exactly like the one they left. Should have just stayed home.
It is silly. They could have just walked across and the Dems would be right there to hand them a Democrat voting registration and bus tickets to a red state.
The Dems are waiting offshore with life jackets.
Smuggling? Are their prices reasonable?
Point Loma? I harvested some tasty abalone in the kelp beds off Point Loma when I was 17.
There have been 2 different pangas loaded with something like 18 illegals or so each landing north of Point Loma in just maybe the last month or so. All made it in, and left large gas containers strewn along the beach. Pangas have a very low radar signature...the original stealth boats. Here’s one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyEIf_S-Iyk
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