Black woman killed in car crash involving a man fleeing ICE in Savannah, GA

Dr. Linda Davis, a beloved special education teacher, died in a car crash involving a man fleeing ICE officers.

What Dr. Linda Davis thought would be a peaceful community to work turned fatal when a man fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents crashed into her car, ultimately taking her life. 

The accident reportedly took place early Monday morning in Savannah, GA. According to the Chatham County Police Department, the incident began when immigration officers tried to pull over 38-year-old Oscar Vasquez Lopez.

In a news release, ICE officials said Vasquez Lopez initially complied with the traffic stop, but then “fled the scene, making a reckless U-turn and running a red light, colliding into a civilian vehicle.” CCPD officers responded to the crash, where Vasquez Lopez and Davis were sent to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead, and he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. 

Vasquez Lopez was later arrested by the local police department and charged with first-degree homicide, reckless driving, driving without a valid license, and failure to obey a traffic control device. Davis was a special education teacher in her first year at Herman W. Hesse K-8 School in Savannah. 

“Dr. Linda Davis was a beloved member of our school family and her loss has affected us deeply,” Hesse K-8 school wrote in a statement posted on Facebook.

“She always made you feel like you mattered,” Davis’ co-worker Aisha Buchanan told WTOC. “Whether they’re a custodian or a teacher, a principal, or even a student, you always matter. And that was her message to everybody.” 

While Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took to social media to condemn the accident, writing, “An innocent American has lost their life because a criminal illegal alien attempted to evade arrest,” local authorities say they were unaware of ICE operations in the city prior to the crash. 

“I’m saying to the President on down to all of our national leaders, there’s a better way to do this. And I think if you allow us to be at the table to draw out strategies and come up with ways of doing things, we can prevent this,” Chatham County Chairman Chester Ellis told the outlet, explaining how Davis’ death was preventable. “We have a no-chase policy, and the no-chase policy is to help protect our citizens more than it is anything else. So there may have been a different way to corner the individual so that he could not run, or that he could not cause the accident that took the life of Dr. Davis.” 

As Georgia congressional candidate Amanda Hollowell noted on Threads, “before politics, before policy debates, we say her name.” 

“A family is grieving. Students at Hesse K-8 are grieving,” Hollowell wrote. “Dr. Davis was an educator, a mentor, a mother, and a pillar in our community. She poured into our children every single day. Her life mattered far beyond a news cycle.