PHARR, Texas — Authorities in this border city continue to look into how three gunmen wearing body armor and face masks stormed a local house demanding cash and left after shooting two victims. The case seems to follow the pattern of what local authorities refer to as “home invasions”.
According to information provided to Breitbart Texas by Pharr Police, three gunmen wearing body armor stormed into a house on the 900 block of East Dreyer Street demanding cash “and other items”. During the robbery, the gunmen shot a 48-year-old man and a 15-year-old teen male. Both victims were rushed to a local hospital. Their condition was not released by authorities. Pharr Police described the gunmen as Hispanic males around 6 feet tall wearing black shirts, jeans, and ski masks.
Authorities did not elaborate on the “other items” that the gunmen demanded, however the armed robbery seems to fit the description of a local crime known as “home invasions”. In the Rio Grande Valley, home invasions generally deal with teams of gunmen storming homes in an effort to steal drug shipments or cash from other crews who stash the wares while waiting for the time to move them further north. As Breitbart Texas has reported in the past, since home invasions tend to take place primarily between drug smugglers, the crimes are usually not reported. The incidents that are reported are usually the ones where shots are fired or victims are injured. Under the current FBI Uniform Crime Report, the most commonly used crime statistic measure, home invasions are classified as regular robberies. The lack of proper quantification when reporting on crime data is often used by local politicians to make the claims that the border regions are safer than other parts of the country, while failing to mention that the UCR does not account for extortions, kidnappings, sex trafficking, human trafficking, drug smuggling, public corruption or other crimes commonly associated with drug cartels.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.