An Illegal Alien From Guatemala Resists Arrest In Florida, Giving Deputy A Heart Attack During The Struggle, Killing Him

An illegal migrant from Guatemala is facing a manslaughter charge after a Florida sheriff’s deputy suffered a fatal heart attack during a May struggle with the 18-year-old in St. Augustine.

Stakes in the legally complex case escalated this week after Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez retained a civil rights attorney who claims he was wrongfully stopped before the encounter which led to St. Johns County Sergeant Michael Kunovich’s death.

Aguilar-Mendez entered the US illegally through the southern border last year aged 17 and eventually made his way to St. Augustine to work on farms, court papers state.

Kunovich, a 52-year-old veteran officer, first spotted the laborer in the parking lot of a Super 8 motel around 9 p.m. on May 16.

According to an arrest report, the teen began walking away from the area after he saw Kunovich approaching in his marked cruiser.

“He checked out with him to simply say ‘Hey, why are you on this property trespassing?’” St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick said during a news conference on the case last month. “That was a simple thing, simple task.”

Bodycam footage of their interaction revealed Aguilar-Mendez’s limited English.

“When you saw me, you walked away,” Kunovich can be heard telling him, before Aguilar-Mendez appears to reference “drinking” somewhere nearby.

Kunovich later asks for his identification and his name.

“Sorry, I no speak English,’ he responds.

The exchange grows tense after Kunovich turns him around to check him for a weapon, placing his hand on one of his pockets.

The teen — who later said he feared deportation because of the stop — appears to pull away from Kunovich at that point, prompting the deputy to raise his voice.

“Don’t pull away from me,” he yells.

“No, no, sorry, sorry,” the migrant responds while attempting to leave the scene.

Additional officers arrived and struggled to subdue Aguilar-Mendez on the ground.

He continued to resist despite being tased several times, according to an arrest report.

“While fighting on the ground with Sergeant Kunovich and other deputies, the defendant grabbed Sergeant Kunovich’s taser in an attempt to gain control of the weapon,” the document states.

“After gaining control of and placing the defendant in handcuffs, he armed himself with a folding pocket knife, which he retrieved from his shorts pockets. Deputies gave loud verbal commands to drop the knife, which were ignored and the knife had to be forcefully removed from the defendant’s hands.”

After Aguilar-Mendez was placed in handcuffs, Kunovich collapsed at the scene from a heart attack and later died at a local hospital.