Man arrested in attacks targeting Asian community
The attacker had a specific type of victim: those of Asian descent, primarily women, many who lived in a community west of Houston’s Chinatown.
For more than a year, he stalked them, sometimes for days, before stealing their jewelry, highend purses, and large amounts of money, according to the Houston Police Department. Some of the incidents were violent, as when he allegedly bound a victim and threatened her with a gun at her home.
On Tuesday, police announced a man, who was already in jail on an unrelated charge, was responsible for the attacks. Derrick Mondell Rogers, 41, faces a slew of charges related to 13 cases dating from June 2017 to September, police said. The burglaries and robberies took place in Houston, Harris County and Fort Bend County.
At a news conference Tuesday, Detective Tyrus Fontenot described some of the attacks, including one incident during late July, when a man approached a woman as she arrived at her home in the 7000 block of Leaders Crossing around 9:55 p.m and pointed a handgun to her head.
Fontenot said the attacker threatened to shoot her if she did not give him money. He zip tied her wrists and ankles, duct taped her mouth, hit her with his knee and choked her before stealing her wallet and a few checkbooks from her purse.
This incident was captured on the victim’s home surveillance camera. The video was released to the public in September and authorities were then able to identify Rogers, detectives said.
The same attacker, authorities said, targeted the same house three times over a five-month period. The first two times, he broke into the home when no one was there. The third time, someone was.
In that incident, detectives said he struck a woman in the head with a brick and then bound her with duct tape before robbing her.
Detectives said they do not know why he targeted Asian women, but that it could be because the suspect might have found them to be easy targets.
Officers recovered Rogers’ vehicle, two handguns and large amount of stolen property from robberies and burglaries, according to the police department.
Rogers faces aggravated assault of family member, burglary of habitation, robbery with bodily injury and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, police said.
Officers also believe there might be more robberies. Anyone with information should contact the HPD robbery division at 713308-0700.
The attacks were just west of Houston’s Chinatown community, where neighborhood leaders last year were dealing with an epidemic of robberies and burglaries. Local law enforcement leaders, including Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, met with more than 300 people in the Chinese Community Center’s gymnasium.
At the time, police warned residents of an uptick in “jugging,” where thieves steal valuables from a car, and “sliding,” where they steal a purse or other items from a vehicle when the occupant is fueling.
Ogg said then that her office was committed to trying to stop robberies in Chinatown as well as across the county. Chinatown is centered generally east of the Sam Houston Tollway and north of Beechnut.