The man who was killed by a passing vehicle while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Norfolk Thursday morning was in the country illegally, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official.

Jose Castro-Rivera, 25, was in a vehicle with three others when they were stopped by ICE on Interstate 264 near the Military Highway interchange. ICE did not specify what crime the four were suspected of committing prior to being pulled over but described it as a “targeted, intelligence-based immigration enforcement operation.”

The officers began to detain them at which point, the DHS official said in an email, Castro-Rivera “resisted heavily” and ran into the highway where he was struck by a passing pickup.

An ICE officer attempted CPR on Castro-Rivera, who died

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