Trump posts graphic video of deadly hammer attack in Florida, putting renewed focus on immigration debate

By Alex Stambaugh, CNN

(CNN) — A Haitian national has been charged with murder after officials say he repeatedly struck a woman with a hammer outside a convenience store in Florida last week, the latest immigration case thrust into the national spotlight by President Donald Trump.

Rolbert Joachin, 40, is in custody and accused by authorities of killing the woman, who has not been publicly identified, during an interaction at a gas station in Fort Myers on April 2, according to court documents.

The attack was “targeted,” and while the victim did not know Joachin, the two “had a previous encounter,” a Fort Myers Police Department spokesperson told CNN in an email Friday.

Joachin was taken into custody “after an extensive coordinated manhunt,” Fort Myers Police Chief Jason Fields said at a news conference Friday afternoon.

The victim, whose name is being withheld by police due to Marsy’s Law, was working as a store clerk at the gas station, according to the court documents.

In a post on Truth Social Thursday evening, Trump shared shocking surveillance footage of the killing, calling it the result of immigration policies under former President Joe Biden and reiterated inflammatory rhetoric associating immigrants with crime. Trump’s amplification of the video is the latest in a yearslong campaign to use certain killings as apparent evidence for stricter border enforcement.

“The video of her brutal slaying is one of the most vicious things you will ever see,” Trump said in his post, referring to the suspect as an “animal” and criticizing humanitarian protections previously granted for Haitians.

‘A video you can never unwatch’

Kelei Walker, the acting Miami field officer director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, described the attack as “a tragic moment and an awful time and an awful reason to come together” at Friday’s news conference.

Gruesome video of the interaction, also shared online by the Department of Homeland Security, shows a man repeatedly hitting the hood and sides of a car parked in the gas station’s parking lot with an object – an apparent hammer – in his hand.

A woman is seen exiting the store and approaching the man, appearing to speak to him, and the man turns and walks toward her, according to the video, which is then lightly blurred due to the graphic nature of the attack.

He immediately strikes the woman in the head with the object in his right hand, forcing her to fall backward onto the store’s sidewalk. He is then seen striking her another six times on her head and torso before walking over her body and away from the scene.

Police received calls around 7:19 a.m. notifying them that a woman had been hit with a hammer, according to court documents. When multiple officers responded to the scene, they found the woman unresponsive lying on the ground and she “was not breathing,” according to the documents. Witnesses told police they had seen a man striking a vehicle and then striking the woman in the head “with a mallet,” according to the arrest report.

Through the surveillance video, authorities identified the suspect, who they said had previous interactions with police, and were able to arrest him later in the day, according to the arrest report.

“It’s a video you can never unwatch,” Micah McCombs, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Tampa, said during Friday’s news conference. “Should not happen in this country.”

Joachin has been charged with murder, criminal mischief, and damage to property over $1,000, a third-degree felony, according to the court documents.

CNN has reached out to Joachin’s lawyers. He’s being held without bond after a hearing in Lee County court Wednesday and is scheduled to be arraigned on May 4.

A memorial has been erected outside the gas station where the woman was killed, according to WBBH. Friends and family described her as a loving mother, devoted to her faith.

“This tragic event to this United States citizen who came here the right way six years ago, this Bangladeshi national who got her citizenship the right way – it’s senseless,” McCombs said.

“Everybody, like, right now is sad … not only me, not only my Bangladeshi community,” M.D. Islam, a member of the Bangladeshi community in Fort Myers, told WBBH last week. “Also, all of us people, also around the world. They are very sad to see this news.”

Trump weighs in on attack

In a statement Tuesday, DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assisted Fort Myers police in tracking down and arresting Joachin in the city.

Joachin entered the US by boat on August 6, 2022, and was arrested by US Border Patrol in what ICE described Friday as a “maritime smuggling event.” A federal judge issued a final order of removal against him in 2022, but the government granted him Temporary Protected Status, and he reapplied in 2024 after it expired, according to DHS.

Joachin filed his Temporary Protected Status renewal application on time and had protection status up until “the moment that the administration revoked his protection, which happened just this week,” Walker said.

“The Trump administration stripped that safeguard, and his protections are now revoked,” she said.

“The Biden Administration granted him, and all Haitians, ‘Temporary Protective Status,’ a massively abused and fraudulent program which my Administration is working to terminate,” Trump wrote in his post Thursday. “This one killing should be enough for these Radical Judges to STOP impeding my Administration’s Immigration Policies, and allow us to END THIS SCAM ONCE AND FOR ALL.”

The Trump administration has long sought to terminate the protection for more than 350,000 Haitians, but the efforts were blocked earlier this year by a federal judge after plaintiffs argued DHS didn’t conduct the necessary review of whether it’s safe for them to return to Haiti. The administration has since asked the Supreme Court to intervene on its behalf.

In his Truth Social post, Trump continued to accuse Democrats of allowing “Criminals, Lunatics, and the Mentally Insane from all over the World to pour into our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked.”

“Please say a prayer for this innocent woman’s family,” he wrote regarding the killing. “We will ensure quick and severe JUSTICE is served in this case!”

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CNN’s Matthew Rehbein, Rebekah Riess, Diego Mendoza, Zoe Sottile and Isabel Rosales contributed to this report.