Wash Post: Robbers Stalk Hispanic Immigrants, Seeing Ideal Prey
Faubillaud
By Ernesto Londoño and Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 26, 2007; A01
By the time they set upon Victor Hernandez, knocking him to the pavement and
kicking him furiously, the teenagers were deep into a weeks-long spree of
robbing Hispanic immigrants.
They coined a term for the assaults, one that reflected the uniformity of
the victims they selected: "amigo shopping." The teenagers recorded some of
the attacks with a cellphone camera, saving one of the videos under the file
name "amigo," a source familiar with the case said.
Hernandez, a dishwasher in Montgomery County, was an ideal target that
August night in a type of robbery that law enforcement officials say has
become alarmingly common in parts of the Washington region. Hispanic
immigrants are being targeted, often in gratuitously violent attacks by
non-Hispanics, because they are thought to carry cash rather than use banks
and to be reluctant to report crimes to police, the officials said.
The attacks are occurring with such frequency that police in Prince William
County have created a task force, and Montgomery police have assigned a
specialized unit to tackle the problem. The crimes are having profound
effects in the neighborhoods where they occur, causing some residents to
alter their routines.
"Everyone leaves with someone else, in groups of two or three," said
Woodbridge resident Joaquin Rodriquez, describing the change that has
occurred since the fatal shooting of a Mexican immigrant during a robbery in
September 2006.
Authorities say the teenage assailants in that case targeted Serafin "Pedro"
Alvarez Negrete after agreeing to "get an amigo." They attacked Negrete, 32,
as he walked home from a shopping center.
"Like alligators waiting for the gazelle to cross the river," Assistant
Commonwealth's Attorney John B. Arledge said as one of the men was sentenced
last week.
Police say recent immigrants, particularly laborers who return home on foot
at night, are most vulnerable. Assailants have been known to lurk between
shopping centers, even sometimes outside of cash-checking businesses on
payday, police say.
Policing experts expressed concern that attacks on immigrants, already
believed to be under-reported, might be reported less and less as local
police agencies become increasingly involved in enforcing immigration
policy.
"The reason that this issue is becoming so acute is the fear that people who
are here illegally will stop reporting crime or will be afraid to serve as
witnesses," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive
Research Forum, a think tank in the District. "That only puts that
population at greater risk for greater harm."
A suspect in one such robbery recently told police in Prince William that he
had robbed several other Hispanics in the same area over several months,
said 1st Sgt. Daniel Hess, commander of the county department's street
crimes unit. He said police then searched department files but found no
record of the robberies, suggesting they had not been reported.
"We've had people severely injured for less than a hundred dollars in their
pocket," Hess said. "It's nonsensical. No one should have to worry about,
'If I walk to the convenient store tonight, I might be jumped by a group of
thugs and killed for having to go down and buy a half-gallon of milk.' "
Despite their brutality, the robberies are not necessarily motivated by
ethnic bigotry, authorities say. Rather, they are typically crimes of
opportunity. While the majority of the perpetrators have been identified as
black men, Latinos and whites have also been charged in some cases,
authorities said.
"All you need is a shadow and a victim," said Warren Jensen, a Montgomery
police officer who is a member of the unit assigned to combat such
robberies.
Jensen spoke as he and a fellow officer patrolled on foot recently in a
Silver Spring apartment complex. Members of the unit say that, even when the
robberies are reported, the investigations are often hindered by the
language barrier.
Many of the assailants who are charged are juveniles, which means they are
not in custody for as long as they would be if they were charged as adults.
Hernandez, 59, a legal immigrant from Honduras who works at two restaurants
on Rockville Pike, was attacked within blocks of his home shortly after
midnight Aug. 23. The teenagers approached and asked him for money. He said
he had none and kept walking.
"They ganged up on me, throwing punches," he said in an interview.
Curled up on the ground, Hernandez was kicked repeatedly in the face and
lost consciousness. The teenagers made off with about $160, but detectives
recovered a prized possession, his work authorization document, which they
delivered to him in his hospital room.
Police arrested two 15-year-olds and a 14-year-old, charging them as
juveniles with robbery, assault and conspiracy to commit robbery. Each has
since admitted responsibility in court or agreed to do so.
According to a source with knowledge of the events, one of the youths told
investigators that he and his friends used the phrase "amigo shopping" to
refer to the search for victims. The source spoke on the condition of
anonymity because aspects of the investigation remain open.
The arrests of the three juveniles, and the discovery of the videos, allowed
police to close investigations into four similar robberies in the preceding
weeks. Five teenagers were charged.
Rene Sandler, an attorney for one of the three teenagers, said her client
took responsibility for his actions and has cooperated with police. Though
the juvenile's parents are not Hispanic immigrants, she said of her client,
"He keeps thinking this could have happened to one of his parents."
Negrete, the victim in the Prince William case, arrived from Mexico in 2005,
moving into a room in a faded trailer park and sending money back to his
wife and three children. He was walking to that room, a simple space
furnished with little more than a bed with no sheets, in September 2006 when
he was confronted by the teenage robbers.
At the entrance to the trailer park, Negrete was shot at least eight times.
A weathered shrine marks the spot where his body fell. Fastened to a
chain-link fence is a wooden cross covered with white lilies, plastic and
permanent.
Georgino Napier, who was 18 at the time, and Carlito McToy, who was 17, were
charged as adults with first-degree murder. They have pleaded guilty and
been sentenced to 28 and 33 years in prison, respectively.
Much in the neighborhood has changed since the slaying. Overhead lighting
was installed, police began to patrol the area more aggressively and
residents learned to change their habits. Relatives of Negrete have returned
to Mexico.
When Negrete was killed, Prince William police had already noticed a spike
in robberies of immigrants. The county's crime rate in 2006 was the lowest
in five years, but robberies were up 40 percent. Of the 351 reported, 83
percent were street robberies, many of which involved Latino victims.
In Montgomery, 285 robberies reported last year were committed by three or
more people, police said. The majority of the victims in the "pack
robberies" were recent immigrants, county police said.
In both counties, police said they remain concerned about the robberies but
believe recent efforts to curb them have been effective.
After several men were robbed in her Manassas neighborhood last year,
Yanette Herrera said the victims spoke of possibly striking back. They
figured that if they retaliated, hurting one of the assailants, it might
send a message, she said.
"We are very patient, but when we see something not changing . . .," she
said in an interview. "You know how bad it is working 12 hours a day and
someone just takes it in a minute?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502
740.html