Family: Ankle monitor distressed Haitian man killed by tanker truck in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Pierre Damas Bel was the eldest of three siblings.

He was an honors student in high school.

He wore a JROTC uniform.

He played soccer for the Springfield Wildcats.

He had just entered Wright State University as a freshman on Aug. 24. He wanted to study medicine.

On Monday, Aug. 31, according to the Ohio State High Patrol, Bel apparently walked in front of a tanker truck on a busy interstate and was killed. 

The youngster’s father said he does not believe his son would commit suicide.

“I want to see the video, because I don’t believe he would kill himself like that,” Bel’s father Pierre Ronal Bel told The Haitian Times early Tuesday. 

“I need proof,” he added. “I don’t believe he would just park his car and walk on the highway in front of a truck to commit suicide.”

Bel also admits that his son’s death followed weeks of the younger man being distraught over wearing the electronic ankle monitor placed on him by immigration authorities. 

“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 said, speaking in Haitian Creole. 

“He would call me crying on the phone saying he can’t do it anymore,” he said. “A 20-year-old living their life shouldn’t be a crime.”

The Haitian Times emailed ICE seeking comment early Tuesday, but had not received a response as of this writing. 

The death shook members of the city’s Haitian community and outside Springfield, where stepped-up immigration enforcement has left many families in a pervasive state of anxiety about detention and deportation. Bel’s death also highlights the emotional toll of immigration enforcement on the youth who had been studying, working and building lives in the U.S.

The following account of Bel’s years in the U.S. and final days is based on an interview with his father. 

An aspiring doctor reunited with family 

The younger Bel came to the United States in 2024 from Haiti via the Biden-era CHNV program to reunite with his parents and pursue his education. 

At Springfield High School, where he was enrolled, young Bel participated in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and played varsity soccer for the Springfield Wildcats as a forward and midfielder. 

In spring 2026, he graduated with honors. He hoped to continue playing soccer after high school and to study medicine with the hope of becoming a doctor.

But between graduation in late May and starting school in late August, Bel’s immigration status changed dramatically.

As a newcomer, he was eligible and had received Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allowed eligible Haitians already in the U.S. to live and work legally because of dangerous conditions in Haiti.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation. Bel was among an estimated 350,000 Haitians who lost that protection as of early August. 

Bel, like many in that predicament, had filed for asylum, a process that can take years to resolve but still allows those with pending cases to remain in the U.S. legally. He was scheduled to appear for a hearing on that matter in October. 

While waiting, immigration authorities in July summoned Bel to their offices, where a GPS monitoring device was placed on his left ankle. Scores had received the letters to appear for ankle monitors.

‘Walking in shame and humiliation’

While alive, Bel publicly described how the ankle monitor affected him emotionally.

‘I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone,’ he wrote on Instagram on July 30.

‘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.’

Bel’s father said the device transformed his son’s emotional state and physical abilities, affecting parts of his life that had once given him purpose. For one, playing soccer became difficult, as the weight of the device interfered with his ability to move around.

The young man even sought to have the monitor removed by going to the ICE office in Blue Ash, Ohio, according to his father. But immigration authorities refused.

“He didn’t go to work. He wouldn’t eat,” his father recalled over the phone interview. 

The senior Bel blamed several setbacks that appeared to intensify Bel’s distress. 

“It was his first week of classes, but he didn’t feel like he was learning because he was traumatized, so it’s because of ICE’s ankle monitor.” 

Friday, he did not receive a JROTC uniform like the other students. He also could no longer play soccer. And, his family said, he felt shunned from other programs and activities he had previously participated in.

‘Li te chagrin.’

 “He was deeply saddened,” the grieving father said. “He would wear long pants or jeans whenever he went out so people wouldn’t make fun of him or look at him differently. People would stare at him and pick on him for wearing it.”

Ultimately, that ongoing distress deeply impacted his mental state in his final days, his father said.

Last call from the road

On Monday, the senior Bel said he received a call at 8:03 from his 20-year-old son. The younger man said he was sitting in a car.

“He said, ‘I don’t feel well,’” the father said. “I told him, ‘If you don’t feel well, come back home. You shouldn’t be driving.’” 

The elder Bel urged his son to come sit together, eat and talk through what he was feeling.

Then the call ended.

His father kept calling back, but could not reach him.

Later that morning, the authorities came to his doorstep.

“They came to my house,” Pierre Ronal Bel recalls. “My wife opened the door, and they had my son’s license in their hands.”

In a news release, the Highway Patrol said troopers were called to Interstate 70 about 10 miles from Springfield. When they arrived, the driver of a 2001 Kenworth tractor-trailer tanker told them he was traveling west on I-70. A 2006 Toyota Avalon was parked on the right shoulder of the road. 

As the tanker approached, the report says, Bel exited the Toyota and went in front of the tanker.

The high achieving young man, the aspiring doctor, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The post Family: Ankle monitor distressed Haitian man killed by tanker truck in Springfield appeared first on The Haitian Times.