An Auburn, Alabama man is on immigration hold after he killed a Georgia doctor in a one-way car crash in Opelika, Alabama on Sept. 7.
Armin Rubido Gomez Lopez, an undocumented illegal, was arrested when he was released from Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, Ga. on Sept. 30.
Piedmont is the same hospital system that employed Dr. Malcolm Goodchild. The prominent Columbus, Ga. surgeon was killed when Gomez’s Toyota 4Runner collided with his Tesla on the northbound exit ramp at Exit 62 on I-85 in Opelika.
The impact was so severe that the Tesla caught fire, according to WRBL Columbus.
READ ALSO: Tearful veteran says she sold her food truck to an illegal immigrant for cash
Dr. Goodchild, 50, was airlifted to Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Dr. Goodchild’s wife, a passenger in the Tesla, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and has since been released from the hospital.
Gomez was previously convicted in Lee County for drunk driving. Despite being in the country illegally, Gomez had a driver’s license.
Gomez is being held without bond at the Lee County Detention Center in Opelika, where he is on an immigration hold.
His public defender requested an Aniah’s Law hearing to determine if he could be freed on bond. But due to the serious nature of the charges, his bond was denied on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Aniah’s law was named after 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard who was killed after being abducted from an Auburn, Alabama gas station. The suspect was free on bond in an earlier kidnapping case.
Dr. Goodchild graduated in 2006 from the The Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, West Indies. He completed his surgical residency at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York.
