Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has condemned the death of a Haitian college student who walked into interstate traffic after losing his temporary protected status and being fitted with an ankle monitor.
DeWine, 78, called the death of Pierre Damas Bel, 20, a “horrible, horrible tragedy” on Tuesday, two days after the Ohio State Highway Patrol found Bel dead on Interstate 70. The governor said Bel graduated from high school in Ohio, was well liked, and participated in junior ROTC. “I’m told by those that knew him that he had great dreams about what he could do in this country and what he could contribute to this country,” DeWine said.
“I think we have to ask ourselves: Is this really good? Is it what we want done to people like this being picked up and facing deportation? Do we want that being done in our name,” he added.
Bel died Monday morning after parking his vehicle on the right shoulder of Interstate 70 and walking into oncoming traffic, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. “Bel succumbed to fatal injuries at the scene,” the patrol said in a statement, noting that the incident remains under investigation.
Bel’s father, Pierre Ronal Bel, told The Haitian Times that his son was “distraught” after weeks of wearing an ankle monitor. The Department of Homeland Security had required Bel and other Haitian immigrants in the Springfield, Ohio area to wear the devices after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to end Haiti’s TPS designation, potentially exposing roughly 350,000 Haitian nationals to removal.
“In his last days, I did not recognize him as he was such an energetic kid who loves life, friends and family, and education,” Bel’s father said in a statement read by Pastor Carl Ruby.
His father told WSYX that Bel was “treated like an animal” after receiving his ankle monitor. Reports said that Bel left home before 8 a.m. On Monday and called his father shortly after to say he was not feeling okay mentally. “I told him, ‘Come home so that we can talk?’ I had my youngest to take to school. I took him to school,” his father said. Police arrived at the home later that morning to inform him his son had died.
A month before his death, Bel posted on social media about his experience wearing the ankle monitor. “I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone,” he wrote.
“Yet now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience,” he added. “I came here to study, to build my future and to live a better [life,] not to be treated like a criminal. So now, how am I supposed to play college sports with a GPS monitor on my leg?”
Ruby wrote on Facebook Monday that he was sitting with the family, who believe Bel took his own life as a result of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda targeting TPS. “I’m sitting with a family right now whose son threw himself in front of semi truck today after being teased by fellow students at Wright State about his ankle monitor,” Ruby wrote.
“I wish President Trump could hear the mom’s wails. The family wants people to know that this was a suicide and they want people to know that President Trump, [White House deputy chief of staff] Stephen Miller, and [Homeland Security Secretary] Markwayne Mullin’s inhumane immigration policies made this happen,” the pastor continued.
Bel’s father wrote on X that his son had traveled twice to Cincinnati and Westerville to plead with officers to remove the bracelet, which left him feeling embarrassed and humiliated among classmates. “Last Friday, August 28, he told me, ‘Dad I felt humiliated. Since they gave uniforms to all my classmates at JROTC their uniform, but except me because of the bracelet,'” his father wrote.
Bel graduated from high school in May and had been set to begin his first semester at Wright State University. He had been unable to play college soccer at Wittenberg University because of the ankle monitor, the Wittenberg men’s soccer team said in a Facebook post.
Wright State University President Sue Edwards said the school is “heartbroken by this devastating loss.” “Pierre was an active honors student who was passionate about soccer and was already actively engaged in his classes and the campus community. The University mourns the death of Pierre and extends our deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time,” Edwards said in a statement.
ICE told WBTN that it “does not comment on the cause of death while that investigation is pending, and we will not speculate about unverified claims regarding other individuals.”
Many of the roughly 15,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield have lived in the U.S. For years, unable to return to their home country that has faced years of violence, turmoil and extreme poverty.