After the victim was knocked down, the driver reportedly kept backing up and ran over her. (Tomas Bellon – iStock / Getty Images)
By Samuel Short July 27, 2026 at 12:14pm
Yet another American tragically lost her life, and the alleged perpetrators should not have been in this country.
An elderly Florida woman died after being backed over by an SUV in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store in Panama City Beach, Florida. Florida Highway Patrol reported in their arrest affidavit that 82-year-old Deborah Murphy was knocked to the ground by a Toyota 4Runner on May 17. The vehicle continued to back up, leading to her death.
The driver was 26-year-old Carlos Suarez-Contreras. He had a passenger, 29-year-old Luis Sanabria.
Beloved grandma is run over and killed by illegal immigrant while walking back to her car after grocery shopping, cops say
“A Florida grandmother was allegedly mowed down and killed by an illegal migrant as she walked back to her car in a Publix parking lot.
Deborah Murphy, 82,… pic.twitter.com/pzwGtDTfeS
— judy morris (@judymorris3) July 27, 2026
Arrest records indicated that both men were in the country illegally.
Fox News reported Sunday the men are from Venezuela. They were issued detainers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and were booked into the Bay County Sheriff’s Office Jail.
Do you support deporting illegal immigrants, even if they haven’t committed violent crime?
Sanabria is in the United States under an expired visa. He was released to ICE.
Suarez-Contreras is being held without bond. He is accused of driving on a canceled license, which had been issued in Georgia.
Fox reached out to The Georgia Department of Driver Services, which confirmed its cancellation, but said due to privacy issues, they would not disclose why.
His arraignment is scheduled on Aug. 17.
He is also accused of causing a death, which is a third-degree felony. Sanabria told police Suarez-Contreras “was operating the vehicle at the time of the crash.”
Before police conducted an investigation into the pair’s immigration status, one officer found Suarez-Contreras’ answers to his questions “suspicious.”
How many more Americans must suffer before the left abandons suicidal notions of “empathy” and “diversity” that encourage these people to come here?
They supposedly enrich the country, adding to its culture. What did these two contribute in this instance?
We are not inviting Nobel Prize recipients, world-renowned chefs, or star athletes when we blindly open the southern border. We are telling thugs, terrorists, and waves of Satan’s hordes that the door is unlocked.
By the end of the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, the Department of Homeland Security says 605,000 deportations had taken place, with 1.9 million self-deportations. That’s 2.5 million illegal aliens leaving the country.
Where the administration sees roadblocks — whether it be from state officials or leftist agitators — we see American lives put in danger.
In February 2024, Joe Biden’s last full year in office, Fox News reported 7.2 million illegal aliens came to the United States through the southwest border, a number greater than the population of 36 individual states.
It’s reasonable to assume the Biden administration’s border policies still plague us today. Most of those people did not disappear with Trump’s return.
This sad story of a grandmother is a reminder that when the left is in charge, it becomes a serious matter of life and death for U.S. citizens.
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Sam Short is an Assistant Professor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
