The men were working on an apartment building in the city of Davenport in Polk County when the incident occurred.
Police who responded to a 911 call arrived at Grand Pointe Apartments to find Jose Lopez lying in front of a skid steer – a type of small bulldozer. The police said it was clear on their arrival he was dead.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s office, four men had been laying paving on the site. They arrested one of them, a 29-year-old worker called Angel Bautista Martinez.
Martinez told police that Lopez had been leaning into the cab while underneath the loading bucket, and had touched the controls. This had caused the loading bucket to come down, trapping his head between the bucket and the frame of the skid steer, killing him immediately.
The Polk County sheriff’s office has charged Martinez with second-degree manslaughter.
Local media report that the sheriff’s office is seeking to upgrade the charge to manslaughter in the first degree, which requires proof of intent to cause serious injury, because he is an undocumented migrant.
Martinez told police he was standing near the cab, but was not operating it when the accident occurred.
Another of the four workers told deputies he observed the machinery being operated by someone, but he did not know who.
News site Fox 13 reported yesterday that police arrested Martinez because he had Lopez’s blood on his clothing. Detectives said there had been blood spatter in the cab of the skid steer except for where the operator would have been seated.
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