Former president Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the Biden administration after authorities charged 40-year-old Rolbert Joachim with second-degree murder and criminal damage to property in a fatal hammer attack caught on video outside a Fort Myers gas station last Friday, authorities said.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Joachim “an Illegal Alien Criminal from Haiti” and blamed “Crooked Joe Biden” and “the Radical Democrats in Congress” for the suspect’s release into the United States. He said the video of the attack was “one of the most vicious things you will ever see” and urged judges to stop impeding immigration policy, writing that the killing should be enough to “END THIS SCAM ONCE AND FOR ALL.”
The Department of Homeland Security said Joachim first entered the United States in August 2022 and was released into the country under the Biden administration. DHS said a federal judge later issued a final order of removal but Joachim was granted Temporary Protected Status, and that he remained in the country after that status expired in 2024.
Local video reviewed by authorities shows a woman repeatedly struck with a hammer after confronting a man who had smashed her car window, Gulf Coast News reported. The outlet identified the victim as a gas station store clerk and a mother of two teenage daughters, Gulf Coast News reported.
Trump asked followers to “please say a prayer for this innocent woman’s family” and said “we will ensure quick and severe JUSTICE is served in this case,” in his Truth Social post. Fox News reporters Alexandra Koch and Bill Melugin contributed to the reporting.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
