SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The kindergarten and first grade students in Linda Davis’ classes sobbed and shed tears after being told their teacher, who greeted them most mornings with an infectious smile, wouldn’t be coming back.
Davis, 52, was killed during her morning commute Monday, less than a half mile (0.8 kilometers) from the school where she taught students with special needs. Local and federal authorities say a Guatemalan man crashed his pickup truck into Davis’ car as he was fleeing a traffic stop by immigration officers.
“It was extremely difficult to tell 5 and 6 year olds that the teacher they loved and cherished will not be returning to see them,” said Alonna McMullen, principal of Herman W. Hesse K-8 School in Savannah’s southside suburbs. “To see the looks on their faces, it broke my heart.”
Teachers at Hesse were trying Thursday to create a normal routine for the students, but their grief remained fresh.
Many on their drives to and from school every day pass the crash site where a cross made from red roses and several bouquets of flowers have been left in the median. A paper sign on the ground reads: “Rest In Peace & Power, Dr. Davis.”
Students in Davis’ two special education classes drew pictures of her to help deal with news of her death. And faculty crafted banners in her memory to display at the school’s home basketball game Thursday.
‘A vacuum of compounded grief’
Davis began teaching at Hesse in September after the school year had begun. Her upbeat personality and her dedication to helping students with special needs thrive soon endeared her to fellow teachers and students alike.
“Even the most difficult students, she knew how to make them shine,” McMullen told reporters.
Davis had been teaching in the Savannah area since 2022. Outside of work, she was raising four children of her own and was guardian to a fifth, according to her sister, Felicia Jackson.
“The preventable, sudden, and violent loss of her presence and love has created a vacuum of compounded grief so vast it feels as though it fills the Mariana Trench,” Jackson said in a social media post.
Standing nearly 6 feet tall, Davis “filled her house with laughter and music,” Jackson said, recalling how her sister loved singing Disney songs and show tunes with her children “at the tops of their lungs.”
“That was Linda: fully alive, engaged, and loving,” Jackson wrote.
Local officials question whether ICE pursuit was necessary
Federal immigration officers have faced increased scrutiny for their aggressive tactics during the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration, especially since they shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and Chester Ellis, chairman of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, have questioned whether the pursuit that ended in Davis’ death was necessary.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, Lindsay Williams, said the fleeing driver had no criminal history but was in the U.S. illegally.
Security camera video from outside the school Monday morning shows a red pickup truck speeding past the school, followed several seconds later by two law enforcement vehicles with flashing lights.
Authorities identified the driver of the truck as Oscar Vasquez Lopez, 38. He suffered minor injuries, according to police, and has been jailed on charges including vehicular homicide and driving without a valid license.
ICE officers pulled over Lopez to enforce an immigration judge’s 2024 deportation order, Williams said, and Lopez drove away as the officers approached his vehicle. ICE said in a news release that Lopez crashed into Davis’ car after making a U-turn and running a stop light.
“He is presumed innocent, and the court process will determine the outcome,” said Don Plummer, a spokesman for the Georgia Public Defender Council, which has an attorney representing Lopez.
