Latino Workers Targeted in D.C.|ABC 7 News

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Latino Workers Targeted in D.C.

posted 6:48 pm Tue October 16, 2007 - Washington

tags: contractors • robbers • gunmen • shooting

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Some local contractors are worried after two armed men opened fire on workers in the district's Park View neighborhood, right by Washington Hospital Center.

The contractors were working in the rear of a building Monday in the 400 block of Kenyon Street when the two men walked up, pulled a gun, and demanded money. One of the men opened fire.

"He come to catch me with my hand but I pulled my hand like that," said one of the men, who did not want to be identified.

The man who spoke to us got away. His brother-in-law was not so lucky. He was shot in the torso and is fighting for his life.

"When he say, like, 'OK, nobody move.' He say, 'Give me all your money, all your money,'" said the victim. "He shot with the gun."

Thousands of workers, many of them Latino, work in some of the metro area's most dangerous neighborhoods everyday.

They are a common target for stickup men, because they often are paid in cash and carry large amounts of it. That's because, activists say, the bad guys know a lot of Latinos are leary of banks.

"We need to do more to get this community banking," said Manny Hidalgo of Latino Economic Development, a non-profit organization. "I think the notion that people are walking around with wads of cash is completely dangerous."

Activists are trying to get the word out that banks do not require documents to open accounts.

Police are investigating the incident, and say they are looking for the gunmen.

Latest Comment on Latino Workers Targeted in D.C.

Tuckmeister

10:15 am on 10/19/07

dcchick and L8shift: exactly, so they're breaking the law twice - 1. one could assume their illegal (assume....) 2. not reporting wages - which they shouldn't be getting anyway because we're assuming they're illegal in this country. I don't care if people carry around wads of money or have all their life savings was under the mattress....just don't come crying to the government or police or to the media to explain your sob story when you get robbed or have a fire and you loose thousands of dollars in cash. There's only one person to blame in this situation.....it sucks it happend but I wouldn't feel sorry. I really don't have sympathy for stupidity, I'm sorry (is that an oxymoron or something?).

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