Thread: Shootout in Houston involves suspected illegals

March 14, 2006, 5:35PM
Suspected illegal immigrants nabbed after wild shootout in Houston


By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Two men were known to have been wounded and at least 21 suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody today after a wild shootout in a southwest Houston neighborhood.

Houston police and federal immigration agents were still combing the neighborhood – in and near the Larkwood subdivision – searching for others who fled after the gunfire erupted in the 9000 block of Sandpiper about 9 a.m.

The shooting occurred in and near a house that appears to have been used as a "drop house," where smugglers are believed to have held illegal immigrants until relatives could pay their smuggling fees.

One of the wounded men, who appeared to have been shot several times, was found inside the house at 9011 Sandpiper and was undergoing surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The other wounded man, who was shot in the foot, was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital.

Witnesses said another man was wounded during the gunbattle, but others carried him to an SUV and he was driven away. Authorities were still searching for the van.

Witnesses told Houston police they heard gunshots and saw some men running around inside the house. Police said at least six men ran out the back, jumped over a fence and ran several blocks along concrete-lined Bintliff Ditch, but officers caught them.

Police found a Chinese version of an AK-47 assault rifle inside the house.

Luisa Deason, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents suspect that the address was used as a drop house because it has no furniture, the windows are boarded up and the house is littered with fast-food wrappers and other trash.

Authorities suspect that the gunbattle may have occurred as one or more "coyotes," or immigrant smugglers, tried to steal illegal immigrants from another coyote so they could collect the smuggling fees.

At least some of those taken into custody are from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala, Deason said.

Patricia Demerson, 35, said she was at home with her son when she heard gunshots and looked out her kitchen window at the house across the street.

Demerson, who works as a prison guard, said she saw men running to a Lincoln Navigator in the driveway as the gunfire continued. One man fell, but other men picked him up and put him in the Navigator, she said.

A short time later, Demerson said, a black pickup drove up and more gunfire erupted as another man ran from the house, jumped into the truck and it drove away.

Neighbors said they had thought that two men and a woman had moved into the house recently.

"I was really scared to know there was a shootout right across the street," Demerson said. "They just moved in a couple of weeks ago. I hope this is it. I'm not sure if there are gangs or drugs or what."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chr ... 22559.html

http://www.khou.com

Two shot, 21 arrested in southwest Houston

06:35 PM CST on Tuesday, March 14, 2006
By Reggie Aqui & Karla Barguiarena / 11 News

Click to watch Karla Barguiarena's 11 News report

06:35 PM CST on Tuesday, March 14, 2006
By Reggie Aqui & Karla Barguiarena / 11 News

Authorities said two victims were recovering from gunshot wounds after a shooting at an alleged immigrant smuggling house Tuesday morning.

Authorities said two victims were recovering from gunshot wounds after a shooting at an alleged immigrant smuggling house Tuesday morning.

Houston police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials responded to the scene at 9011 Sandpiper in southwest Houston around 9 a.m. after residents reported hearing gunshots in the neighborhood.

Two people were wounded, but police aren’t sure who shot them.

The victims were transported to Ben Taub and Memorial Herman Hospital. Their conditions aren’t known.

Police said a bullet broke through a window at a house across the street, but no one in that home was injured.

A woman who lives in a nearby house got quite a scare, as a number of bullets hit around her home. “I told my son to stay down because I kept hearing it hitting the house,” she said. “And I just didn’t know where and it was scary.”

Police recovered a weapon they said was a Chinese version of an AK47.

Investigators said the home was a drop house where illegal immigrants are brought when smuggled into the U.S. The house, like many drop houses, did not have furniture inside and the windows had been boarded up.

Investigators said the house has been used for smuggling in the past, but neighbors in the area seemed unaware of the criminal activity going on at the house until Tuesday morning’s incident.

Police saw six men jump out of a window and run away when they arrived on the scene, but those men were caught nearby.

At least one man fled the scene in an SUV and has not been located.

Officials took 21 other people into custody, but were not sure if the smugglers or the shooters were among those apprehended.

An immigrant on the scene told 11 News they had arrived at the house on Monday evening after paying $2,000 each to be brought to the U.S. from Mexico. The immigrant said there were around 50 immigrants in the home with four heavily armed men when he arrived.

Investigators said all of the immigrants taken into custody Tuesday were males from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala.

Ronald Kahla has lived in his house down the street for 54 years and said his neighborhood is “going downhill, fast.”

“This used to be a beautiful little neighborhood,” he said. “Everybody knew everybody and all the kids played together. It was just a fun neighborhood, a nice garden club and everything. But now all that’s gone. It’s all changed.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 24274.html

March 14, 2006, 11:44PM

Smugglers' turf war linked to gunbattle
Investigators believe rivals were fighting over human cargo
By CINDY HORSWELL and CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

A gunbattle that peppered a southwest Houston neighborhood with bullets and led to the arrests of at least 21 men suspected of being illegal immigrants appeared to be one more battle in a growing turf war between smugglers, authorities said Tuesday.

Although the gunmen were still being sought, investigators said the shootout — which wounded at least two men — erupted at a residence apparently used as a "drop house" for stowing illegal immigrants until their smuggling fees are paid.

"We strongly suspect that a load of aliens was being held by one smuggler at this house, and then another smuggler tried to rip them off," said Luisa Deason, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "These aliens are a precious commodity to the smugglers and more lucrative than drugs."

With tighter security at the Texas-Mexico border, she said, violence is becoming more common as smugglers, often called coyotes, attempt to steal human cargo from each other and collect the fees.

The gunfire broke out about 8:30 a.m. at the house at 9011 Sandpiper in the Larkwood subdivision just north of Brays Bayou. In addition to the two wounded men, Houston police and federal agents rounded up 21 others who had scattered throughout the neighborhood during the chaos.


Suspects sought
Officers were still looking for the smuggling suspects who drove away in two vehicles with an undetermined number of men taken from the house.


One of the injured men, who underwent surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital for multiple wounds, was listed in serious condition. The other man, shot in one foot, was at Ben Taub General Hospital, but his condition was not known.

Witnesses told police they heard shots and saw a gray van and a green Lincoln Navigator in the driveway of the brown-brick, ranch-style house.

Patricia Demerson, who lives across the street, said she looked out her kitchen window and told her 7-year-old son to lie on the floor. She later found that bullets had lodged in her fence and garage, a few feet from the window.

Demerson, 35, a prison guard, said she saw a man run from the house and jump into the van. Others came outside and fired at the van as it sped away, she said. Demerson said she then saw three or four men loading a wounded man into the Navigator. A black pickup pulled into the driveway, she said, and she ducked as gunfire was exchanged between the vehicles. When she looked again, she said, both vehicles had sped away.

James DeMoss, 89, who lives next door to the site of the shooting, said he was "flabbergasted" to see such an incident in the neighborhood where he has lived for 45 years.

"The gunfire didn't sound like a .32 or anything like that," he said. "It made a tremendous loud noise."

Police said they found a Chinese version of an AK-47 assault rifle inside the house. The windows were boarded up, they said, and the house had no furniture and was littered with food wrappers and other trash.

"This appears to be a typical drop house, where loads of aliens were kept," Deason said. "They are held for a while, until relatives pay whatever fee was arranged at the border to ransom them. Sometimes they're held against their will when smugglers raise the amount."

She said at least two drop houses are discovered in the Houston area each week.

"As we clamp down on the borders and make it more difficult to get here, then those trafficking in human cargo start stepping on one another's established turfs," she said.


Fees depend on distance
The fees for smuggling illegal immigrants here depend largely on the distance traveled, Deason added.


Smugglers are paid $1,500 to $3,000 for bringing in Mexican nationals, $5,000 to $15,000 for Central Americans and as much as $70,000 for Chinese nationals, she said.

"It's a very highly organized, very astute criminal enterprise," Deason said.

The 21 men in custody are thought to be from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, investigators said.

Neighbors said they had thought some new renters had moved into the house about three weeks ago.

"I just saw two men," Demerson said. "I remember thinking it was strange that I never saw any furniture being brought in, but I might have missed it."

Geneni Roman, who lives around the corner on Shadowcrest, was going to her car when she heard gunshots.

She said the man who was taken to Ben Taub ran up to her and asked for help, limping and bleeding from the foot. "He said he had barely gotten here last night and was asleep when he awoke and heard shooting."


cindy.horswell@chron.com cynthia.garza@chron.com

I wonder what Senator Domenici thinks about this story???? After all, there aren't any criminals coming into our country illegally, right Senator?

I'm afraid news stories are going to get even more gruesome than this lot we have posted today. How can lawmakers even be considering such a thing as a guestworker program or an amnesty program?

Totally outrageous. Or do they NEVER read the news??

RR

I think it is a good thing that all these stories are coming out. I think we should send every single one of them to our own congressmen and senators. They may not read the news!

They may not read the news!

I was thinking the same thing.