LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The wrong-way driver who killed an off-duty Las Vegas officer had been deported from the U.S. twice before the crash, according to federal officials.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Fernando Jimenez-Jimenez, 31, was a Mexican citizen. An ICE spokesperson said Jimenez entered the United States twice in 2019 “and was returned to Mexico on an order of expedited removal.”
The spokesperson also said Jimenez applied for admission to the U.S. on Jan. 24, 2020 in Brownsville, Texas but never appeared for his immigration hearing nearly two years later on Dec. 2, 2021. An immigration ordered him to be deported when he didn’t go to court.
It’s unknown where Jimenez was in the years after that hearing up until the deadly crash.
Jimenez was accused of driving the wrong way on I-15 near Valley of Fire on Dec. 12 and hitting Officer Colton Pulsipher head on. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said Pulsipher was headed home from his shift when the crash happened. Both Jimenez and Pulsipher were pronounced dead at the scene.
Nevada State Police said that Jimenez also had containers of marijuana and alcohol in his car when the crash occurred but that official toxicology reports were still pending.
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