Thread: Murder raises fear of assault in illegals

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Murder raises fear of assault in Hispanics
By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Tuesday, September 12, 2006


Pedro Alvarez lay dying on the pavement, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds, agonizingly close to the mobile home park where he lived.

He kicked at the ground with his foot, and tried to scream as blood poured out of his mouth.

That was the condition Alvarez's friend, Andres Rodriguez, found him in on Sunday night - unrecognizable, unintelligible - a short while after a rash of gunshots rang out in Marumsco Mobile Home Park off U.S. 1.

Rodriguez thought the body lying on the pavement was already a corpse. But as he approached, he saw the body move, and heard Alvarez's muffled screams.

Seeing no one in the vicinity, Rodriguez called the police, who arrived shortly after 9 p.m. Alvarez died at the scene, 13950 Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge.

Police are treating the case as a murder and had not determined a motive by Monday.

Sgt. Charles Hoffman, the lead investigator, said the victim was found with money, but no wallet - which family members said Alvarez had lost weeks earlier.

"We are totally unsure of any personal effects he might have been missing," said Hoffman, who supervises the county's violent crimes unit. "We have no idea if anything was taken from him," he said.

Alvarez carried no identification, but with help of his family members - who gave a physical description and produced a birth certificate from Mexico - police made a positive identification, releasing the victim's name as Serafin Alvarez Negrete.

Even though police would not let him see the victim, Roberto Alvarez Barrera knew the body lying on the pavement a short distance from his house was the nephew he called "Pedro."

Barrera, Rodriguez and approximately 60 other residents of the mobile home park in Woodbridge come from the same town in Mexico: Chicontla, population about 5,000.
"When someone goes missing here, you feel it," Barrera, 60, said.

Pedro Alvarez, 32, worked odd jobs as a day laborer in Woodbridge. In Mexico, where he had a wife and three children, he had been a bricklayer.

On Sunday night, Alvarez had gone to do laundry across U.S. 1, in Marumsco Plaza. While his clothes dried, the sky darkened completely.

In the mobile home park, residents heard several gunshots around 8:30 p.m. Rodriguez counted seven. Noe Salazar, a Chicontla native and neighbor of Alvarez, heard five or six. Salazar called the victim's cell phone. There was no answer.

The Mexican-born residents of the Marumsco Mobile Home Park are feeling more than the loss of a relative and countryman; they are feeling fear.

In the Marumsco area, a new nexus of the Hispanic population in Prince William County, assaults on Hispanics - allegedly by black aggressors - are regular, weekly events, residents said.

"The majority of Hispanics here can't open bank accounts because they don't have documents," Salazar said. "That makes them an easy target."

The Prince William County Police Department released a report in April detailing a wave of robberies, notably involving young black men preying on Hispanics. Nearly half of the 205 street robberies in 2005 involved Hispanic victims.

Thirteen robberies in the vicinity have been reported since March, according to Sgt. Kim Chinn, a spokesperson for the county police.

But a string of violent assaults - not necessarily robberies - have fueled concerns over personal safety among Hispanics in the Marumsco park.

Barrera's son-in-law was severely beaten in daylight on a Sunday three weeks ago, he said. Barrera and Salazar saw the perpetrators, who they described as a group of 10 young black men "kicking him like a soccer ball," on the same access road where Alvarez was found dead.

The victim in this case was not robbed, Barrera said, but his son-in-law's hospital bills totaled $7,782.

"He's messed up now," Barrera said. "He shouldn't have to pay that."

Rodriguez, who found the dying Alvarez on Sunday, waited 15 minutes after hearing the gunshots before he left the mobile home park, making sure the coast was clear.

Eight days ago, Rodriguez said he was menaced by three men - two black and one white - with knives, as he was leaving the mobile home park after sunset.

The men broke for cover when a car with headlights on pulled up, leaving Rodriguez unharmed.

"You can't go out at night," Rodriguez said Monday, standing feet away from where he found Alvarez's body. Two long smears of dried blood still coated the pavement, covered in flies, despite a cleaning from the police.

Alvarez's relatives want to send his body back to Chicontla to be buried, but they worry about raising the money. Between funeral home, airline and embassy charges, sending Alvarez home is likely to cost a minimum of $5,000.
When he thought about the money, Barrera, the uncle, could not hold back the tears.

"What I want is that ..." Barrera began, his voice breaking, his eyes flooding. "It's that we're poor, and it's a lot of money ... but he's my nephew!" he said, beating his chest with his fists.

Ismael Callejas, Alvarez's brother-in-law, crossed the border with Alvarez last October. Now, he said, he's sorry he came.
"You lose your life for coming here," said Callejas, 35, who will accompany Alvarez's casket back to Mexico. "We came together. Now I am going back without him. It would have been better not to come."

"He's messed up now," Barrera said. "He shouldn't have to pay that."

Somehow I doubt they'll hold him liable for these expenses. Once again, we get to pay this crap.

What the US isn't good enough for him to be buried in?