She did not walk back inside.
At 7:19 on a Wednesday morning in Fort Myers, Florida, a woman walked out of the gas station where she worked and approached a man who was beating on a parked car with a hammer. She did not walk back inside.
Rolbert Joachin, a 40-year-old Haitian national without legal immigration status, is now charged with her murder. According to court documents, he struck her in the head the moment she came near him, knocking her to the ground, then hit her six more times — head and torso — before stepping over her body and leaving the scene. Officers who responded to calls shortly after 7 a.m. found her unresponsive on the sidewalk, not breathing. Surveillance footage from the gas station captured the entire sequence. Witnesses described the weapon as a mallet.
The victim has not been publicly identified by authorities, but a member of Fort Myers' Bangladeshi community told a local television station that she was one of their own — a mother, described by those who knew her as loving and deeply devoted to her faith. A memorial has since gone up outside the gas station. "Everybody, right now, is sad," said M.D. Islam, speaking to CNN affiliate WBBH. "Not only me, not only my Bangladeshi community. All of us, around the world."
Police, assisted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tracked Joachin through the surveillance footage and arrested him later that same day. He had prior interactions with law enforcement. He is now held without bond in Lee County and is scheduled to be arraigned on May 4. His charges include murder, criminal mischief, and felony property damage.
The Department of Homeland Security, which shared the surveillance footage publicly, laid out Joachin's immigration history: he first entered the United States in August 2022, received a final order of removal that same year from a federal judge, and was then granted Temporary Protected Status — a humanitarian designation that shielded him from deportation. That status expired in 2024.
On Thursday evening, President Trump amplified the story on Truth Social, posting the graphic footage and framing the killing as a direct consequence of immigration policy under his predecessor. He referred to Joachin as an "animal," called Temporary Protected Status a fraudulent program, and directed pointed language at federal judges who have blocked his administration's efforts to end TPS protections for more than 350,000 Haitians. "This one killing should be enough," Trump wrote, demanding that judges stop impeding his immigration agenda.
The administration has been fighting to terminate Haitian TPS since early in Trump's second term. A federal judge blocked that effort earlier this year after plaintiffs argued the government had not properly reviewed whether conditions in Haiti were safe enough for mass return. The administration has since appealed to the Supreme Court.
Trump's use of individual violent crimes to build the case for sweeping immigration enforcement is a pattern that stretches back years. The Fort Myers killing is the latest instance — a specific, brutal act absorbed into a much larger political argument, the victim's identity still officially unnamed while the debate around her death grows louder.
Joachim's arraignment is set for May 4. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the administration's TPS appeal. Both proceedings will draw attention well beyond the courtroom.
Notable Quotes
Everybody right now is sad — not only me, not only my Bangladeshi community, but all of us, around the world.— M.D. Islam, member of the Bangladeshi community in Fort Myers, speaking to WBBH
This one killing should be enough for these radical judges to stop impeding my administration's immigration policies.— President Donald Trump, posting on Truth Social
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What's the actual legal status question at the center of this case?
Joachin had a removal order issued against him in 2022, but the government then granted him Temporary Protected Status — a humanitarian designation that essentially paused that removal. That status expired in 2024, leaving his situation unresolved.
So he was in a kind of legal limbo when this happened?
That's one way to read it. TPS doesn't erase a removal order — it suspends enforcement. When it expired, there was no automatic mechanism to remove him immediately. That gap is exactly what the administration is pointing to.
And the victim — why hasn't she been named?
Authorities haven't publicly identified her. What we know comes from her community: she was Bangladeshi, a store clerk, a mother. The memorial outside the gas station is more concrete than anything in the official record.
Trump posted the surveillance footage himself. What does that do to the story?
It transforms a local criminal case into a national political exhibit. The footage becomes evidence in an argument about policy, and the woman in it becomes a symbol before she's even been named.
Is that a new tactic?
Not at all. Trump has used specific killings this way for years — it's a deliberate rhetorical strategy, connecting individual acts of violence to the broadest possible immigration argument.
The Bangladeshi community member said the whole world is sad. Does that register in the political conversation?
It's there in the story, but it sits quietly beside the louder noise. The grief is real and documented. Whether it shapes the debate is a different question.
What actually happens next legally — for Joachin and for TPS broadly?
Joachin faces arraignment May 4 in Lee County. The TPS question is now before the Supreme Court, which could determine the fate of more than 350,000 Haitians currently protected under the program.