A 21-year-old Connecticut college hockey player was killed this month when a pickup truck traveling the wrong way slammed head-on into his vehicle. According to federal immigration authorities, the driver was a Mexican national who had been removed from the United States twice before.
Ryan O’Shea, a student at the University of New Haven and a senior assistant captain on the school’s club hockey team, died Oct. 16 in the crash on Interstate 91 in North Haven, Connecticut, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday.
O’Shea was driving back to campus after a hockey game when the pickup struck him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
ICE identified the driver as Guillermo Carmona-Lopez, 31, of Mexico. The agency said he was in the country illegally.
According to ICE, Border Patrol agents first arrested Carmona-Lopez in May 2013 after he crossed into the country illegally. He was given an expedited removal and sent out of the United States.
He later crossed back into the country illegally, which is a felony, and Border Patrol arrested him a second time. ICE said he was issued a final order of removal. At some point after that, he entered the United States again. Federal officials say they do not know when or where he did so.
Carmona-Lopez was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Three other people involved in the crash suffered minor injuries.
O’Shea was studying criminal justice and hoped to join the New York City Police Department, ICE said.
In a statement posted on X, ICE said Carmona-Lopez never should have been in the country, let alone behind the wheel. The agency called O’Shea’s death both tragic and preventable. It said his family now joins a long list of American families who have suffered a loss that should never have happened, and it cited cases like his as the reason behind its enforcement mission.
O’Shea’s family is struggling with the loss.
His sister, Kiera O’Shea, told WTNH News 8 that the family is devastated and still in shock over her little brother’s death.
“He was my number one cheerleader,” she said.
She described her brother as one of the funniest and happiest people she knew, someone who poured love into his family, his friends, his girlfriend, his fraternity brothers and his hockey teammates. She said everyone who knew him loves him deeply.
The crash has drawn attention from immigration enforcement officials. The Trump administration has pointed to such cases to argue for stricter border security and the removal of illegal immigrants with prior deportation orders.
The case is the latest in which federal authorities have highlighted a fatal crash involving a driver who was in the country illegally after previous removals.
As of Friday, Carmona-Lopez had not been charged in connection with the crash. Authorities say the investigation is ongoing.
The University of New Haven is located in West Haven, a short drive from the stretch of I-91 where the crash took place.
O’Shea’s family and teammates are now mourning a young man who, by their account, was looking forward to a career protecting others in law enforcement.
