Guatemalan immigrant SMILES as he’s freed from jail after being declared ‘incompetent’ to face charges for his role in scuffle with Florida cops where one deputy died
A Guatemalan migrant who spent 10 months in custody accused of killing a longtime Florida police officer has been released.
Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, 19, was arrested in May 2023 after he was approached by officers and one of them suffered a fatal heart attack during a struggle to detain him.
Sergeant Michael Kunovich, an officer with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office in St. Augustine, northeast Florida, for 25 years, died during the chaos.
The 7th District Attorney’s Office deemed farm worker Aguilar Mendez “incompetent” to stand trial, partly due to the language barrier, and therefore dismissed the charges against him.
It comes as a ‘migrant crime wave’ is sweeping the country thanks to hundreds of thousands of people crossing the border illegally every month.
A Guatemalan migrant who spent eight months in custody accused of killing a Florida veteran has been released
Virgilio Aguilar Mendez (pictured), 19, was arrested in May 2023 after he was approached by officers and one of them suffered a fatal heart attack during a struggle to detain him
Sergeant Michael Kunovich (pictured), a 25-year officer with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office in St. Augustine, northeast Florida, died during the chaos
Aguilar Mendez’s attorney, Phillip Arroyo, released a video of him walking free, and the teen nodding and smiling as they walked out of the police station together.
“Recent expert testimony regarding the defendant’s inability to understand the English language, his cultural background and concerns about his intellectual capabilities have raised important issues to be considered in the case,” the prosecutor’s office said of his release.
“Furthermore, dismissal of the charges is appropriate based on the court’s recent ruling that the defendant is incompetent to proceed based on that expert testimony. Arrest and imprisonment are sufficient.”
Aguilar Mendez was arrested last May after Sergeant Kunovich approached him about “suspicious behavior,” according to an arrest warrant.
The Guatemalan national, who does not speak English, tried to walk away from the officer, and a struggle ensued.
Bodycam footage of the arrest shows him communicating with the officer and appearing to tell him he doesn’t understand before slowly walking away.
Officers throw him to the ground, place him in a chokehold and repeatedly use a taser on him.
Arroyo told ABC News that minutes after the incident, Sgt. Kunovich suffered a heart attack and died.
The 7th District Attorney’s Office deemed farm worker Aguilar Mendez “incompetent” to stand trial, partly due to the language barrier, and therefore dismissed the charges against him.
Aguilar Mendez’s attorney, Phillip Arroyo, released a video of him walking free, and the teen nodding and smiling as they walked out of the police station together.
Aguilar Mendez was arrested last May after Sergeant Kunovich approached him about “suspicious behavior,” according to an arrest warrant
The Guatemalan national, who does not speak English, tried to walk away from the officer, and a struggle ensued
His autopsy report concluded that he died of natural causes as he suffered from serious heart disease that caused the heart attack.
The disease may have been caused by heart and lung deterioration he had as a result of smoking.
DailyMail.com has contacted Arroyo for more information on why he was contacted by police and what will happen to him in the future.
About 2,045,838 people illegally crossed the southern U.S. border last year, according to CBP figures.
These numbers are expected to rise this year – while the northern border with Canada is also experiencing an unprecedented crisis.
The number of illegal crossings from Canada to the US rose 500 percent last year to 10,021 compared to 2022.