Men Grieving Their Dead Brother Are Killed in Same Spot

The two brothers headed out Tuesday at the crack of dawn to mourn privately for another brother, who was killed last week in North Carolina after a train hit his pickup. Tragically—and “eerily,” per the Charlotte Observer—Pablo Tiquiram Us, 29, and his 20-year-old sibling, Jose Tiquiram Us, suffered a nearly identical fate. The two were fatally struck by a train shortly after 5am Tuesday at the site near East Hebron Street and South Boulevard where 27-year-old Baltazar Tiquiram Us had been killed on July 26.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police responding to a call about a CATS LYNX Blue Line light rail train that had hit two pedestrians found the Us brothers lying near the tracks; medics pronounced them dead at the scene. The conductor immediately stopped the train after the crash, police say.

Sgt. Adam Jones tells Spectrum News 1 that video shows the pair on the tracks before the crash. “As the train was approaching, they appeared to look at it before they were struck,” he says. Baltazar Us died last week in the same spot after police say he drove his Toyota Tundra around the railroad crossing gates as a LYNX train approached. A passenger in his vehicle suffered serious injuries.

Although the investigation into the second accident is still underway, authorities say the train line’s safety apparatus appeared to be in working order, and that the brothers may have been impaired by alcohol. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families,” Jones tells FOX 46 Charlotte. “I can’t imagine losing your children, your siblings within a week to such tragic circumstances.”