U.S. immigration officials have placed a detainer on the man charged with seven counts of negligent homicide in the collision that killed seven motorcyclists in a small New Hampshire town last week.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ordered a hold on 23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, a Ukraine national who was allegedly driving the pickup truck that was involved in the June 21 wreck. The detainer would place Zhukovskyy into ICE custody after criminal proceedings conclude in New Hampshire.
The Union Leader first reported the hold, citing the Coos County House of Correction superintendent, who told the newspaper the detainer was placed on Zhukovskyy the same day that he arrived at the jail.
ICE issues detainers to let local law enforcement agencies know that they intend to take custody of a suspect and request that they not be released in the interim.
NBC10 Boston has reached out to the Coos County House of Correction.
Zhukovskyy was allegedly behind the wheel of a 2016 Dodge 2500 pickup truck that collided with 10 motorcyclists, killing seven of them, in Randolph, New Hampshire. The truck, carrying a flatbed trailer, was traveling westbound on Route 2 when it crossed the double-yellow centerlines, hitting the motorcyclists in the eastbound lane, authorities said.
The suspect waived his arraignment on Tuesday but entered a not guilty plea via his attorney in Lancaster, New Hampshire. He was held without bail and ordered not to have contact with 14 people, which includes survivors of the collision and family members of victims.
The victims, whose ages ran from 42 to 62, were members or supporters of Marine JarHeads, a New England motorcycle club comprised of Marines and their spouses.
Zhukovskyy was arrested in his West Springfield, Massachusetts, home on Monday and briefly appeared in court in the Bay State later that day. He waived extradition to New Hampshire.
Zhukovskyy had a green card, his father told The Boston Herald. An ICE official wouldn’t comment on his U.S. residency status, citing the agency’s privacy policy.
The suspect has a lengthy history of vehicular incidents and arrests. Zhukovskyy was arrested on drunken driving charges just last month in East Windsor, Connecticut, and in 2013 in Westfield, Massachusetts, according to Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles records.
Police in Baytown, Texas, confirmed to NBC10 Boston Investigators that Zhukovskyy flipped a tractor-trailer in their town while hauling five cars. The defendant claimed a car cut him off. In February, police in the same community arrested him on drug charges.
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said the Registry of Motor Vehicles did not act on information sent by Connecticut’s Department of Motor Vehicles of the suspect’s arrest in the Constitution State. Had MassDOT known of that arrest, Zhukovskyy’s driver’s license would have been revoked.
Massachusetts’ registrar of motor vehicles, Erin Deveney, resigned from her position in the wake of the crash.
A candlelight vigil hosted by Whitman VFW will be held Wednesday to honor the lives of the victims.
