Illegal immigrant accused of killing Washington state trooper was previously accused of domestic violence
An illegal migrant from Mexico charged with killing a Washington State Patrol Officer in a car crash last Saturday was previously charged with assaulting the mother of his child in 2017.
The illegal migrant who crashed into a Washington State Patrol car and killed the officer inside was previously arrested on charges of domestic abuse, officials claim.
Raul Benitez Santana, 32, was arrested last Saturday after the fatal incident, which took the life of 27-year-old Trooper Christopher Gadd.
King County court documents obtained by the "Jason Rantz Show" on KTTH show that Santana was previously arrested for assaulting his girlfriend — identified by the initials "M.C." — who was also the mother of his then-five-month-old child.
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M.C. reported to police that the confrontation began when she got into an argument with Santana over text messages he was receiving from another woman, according to the documents.
M.C. reported throwing Santana's phone, after which he began punching her repeatedly. She suffered significant damage to her face, including a broken nose and swollen left eye. A non-felony plea deal from Santana was accepted in May 2019.
Following the arrest, officers noticed irregularities in Santana's personal identification records.
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King County became a sanctuary county in 2013, and Washington became a sanctuary state in 2019 to push back against effort by then-President Donald Trump to tighten restrictions on illegal immigrants in the U.S.
"The search incident to his arrest yielded multiple identification documents for him bearing a variety of names and other changed identifying information such as social security numbers," documents surrounding the case read.
Santana was arrested last week following the fatal car accident and is being held on $1 million bail after allegedly crashing his vehicle into a Washington State Patrol trooper and killing him.
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Gadd was watching for speeding and DUI drivers, when he was struck and killed in a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 5 around 3 a.m. Saturday.
An investigation into the crash found an SUV being driven by Santana was heading southbound on the interstate when the vehicle veered onto the shoulder and struck the trooper’s patrol car.
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office reportedly found the SUV was traveling at a high rate of speed when it crashed into the police vehicle.
On Tuesday, FOX 13 in Seattle reported it had obtained court documents alleging Santana had bloodshot eyes and admitted to police he had been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana before getting behind the wheel of the vehicle and driving.
Santana was booked into the Snohomish County Jail, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Seattle Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division placed an immigration detainer on the Mexican citizen.
He was first encountered by Seattle ERO on Oct. 28, 2013, at the South Correctional Entity in Burien, Washington, after being arrested for failing to appear in court for driving on a suspended license.
He was also sentenced to 90 days behind bars, with 87 of the days suspended, in May 2013, after being convicted of possessing less than 40 grams of marijuana.
On Oct. 6, 2014, Santana was sentenced to 90 days behind bars for driving on a suspended license, and in May 2019, was arrested again for domestic violence assault.
Fox News Digital's Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
