Photo: CBS 12
We're learning more about the victims of last month's deadly Turnpike crash involving an illegal immigrant at the wheel of a semi.
28-year-old Harjinder Singh is being held at the St. Lucie County Jail for making an illegal U-turn, and killing three people in a minivan that slammed into his 18-wheeler.
Officials say he had entered the country illegally in 2018, later obtaining commercial drivers licenses in California and Washington state, despite not being able to pass an English proficiency test or being able to identify most highway traffic signs.
Turns out, the illegal alien is blamed for taking the life of a legal immigrant. 30-year-old Herby Dufresne from Haiti entered the U.S. in December of 2023 through a Humanitarian Parole program that allowed up to 30,000 people per month from Haiti and some other countries if they had sponsors and passed vetting.
The program ended earlier this year, but those already admitted were allowed to keep their legal status for two years.
Dufresne is described as being a very hard worker. His body remains at the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office because his mother cannot obtain a visa from Haiti to come and claim it. The family has hired an attorney in hopes of securing Dufresne's release so they can finally lay him to rest.
54-year-old Rodrigue Dor was a longtime friend of Dufresne and they had been roommates in Indiana after not finding steady work in South Florida.
Friends say Dor and 37-year-old Faniola Joseph, the third victim, were also friends and all three were returning from Indiana at the time of the crash.