Hispanic Violence Trend On the Rise

Posted: Feb 5, 2009 04:40 PM PST

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Police say it's a very disturbing trend. Metro police say they've seen a huge increase in the number of Hispanic murder victims. In many of these cases, Hispanics are doing the killing.

There are the images of justice investigators hold onto. In this case Martha Patlan and FBI's most wanted Genaro Dorantes, were brought back to Nashville after years on the run in Mexico. Both are charged with killing little Luis Cisneros in 2003.

"Each one of these names consists of a case file," said Homicide Detective Pat Postiglione with Metro Police.

Unfortunately, the return to justice is a long and little travelled road in recent years. Postiglione counts more and more homicides each year where there are Hispanic victims, and most with most of those, the suspect is Hispanic as well.

The main issue is a majority of those suspects flee to Mexico and the case remains unsolved.

If they are found, extradition is a nightmare.

"Normally I can tell you almost impossible locate them when flee," said Postiglione.

Police believe drug smuggling lead to a brutal shooting that was caught on surveillance video at a Shell station in South Nashville back in the summer of 2003. The suspect police think is in Mexico.

"It's a vulnerable community, easy to be targeted," said Hispanic advocate Yuri Cunza.

Yuri Cunza acknowledges it's a difficult problem with no real solution. He says many in the Hispanic community are reluctant to talk to police for fear of retaliation and hurting their immigration status.

"By engaging in your community and reporting crimes, you definitely have twice the strength and power of law enforcement and we need to encourage that," said Cunza.

Meanwhile, cold case detectives continue to follow any lead they can. They are worried this trend may continue, but their persistence will too.

"It gets frustrating, any case put heart and soul try to solve the case," said Postiglione.

The list is really extensive when you look at homicides in the last ten years. At least 60 of them involve Hispanic victims, and nearly all of those involve Hispanic suspects. Police aren't sure exactly why these crimes are on the rise, but they do attribute a lot of it to gang activity and drug related violence.

Detectives say many of these cold cases are solved when the suspects re-enter the country after a few years.

http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=9798086

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