Police try new approach in home invasions

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.

An armed man forced open a back door of a house on Cimarron Road on Sunday, kidnapped a woman and drove her to Southern California before letting her go more than four hours after her ordeal began.

This is the most recent home invasion robbery in Las Vegas and, like many others that have happened recently, the victim spoke English as a second language.

There hasn't been a significant increase in home invasions recently -- the average number per month is 15 -- but Robbery Lt. Ted Snodgrass says officers are noticing a pattern when it comes to the victims.

In addition to those who speak English as a second language, elderly women and younger, single women also are being targeted, he said. People involved in criminal activity themselves, who may not want to have contact with police, have also been victims.

"They're just more vulnerable," he said. "Some of these victims don't trust the police so they don't report the incident right away, or they're afraid the suspects will come back."

Robbery detectives, working with officers from the area commands around the city, are identifying these patterns of victimization, which has led to several arrests.

"We're spending more time looking at the methods of operation," he said. "We used to look at the crook, and now we look at the victim."

Police recently arrested three men they allege were working as a group in connection with two home invasion robberies last month, and police believe they may have committed as many as nine others since August 2002.

Jose Ramirez, 30; Ramon Ochoa Gonzalez, 30, and Juan Manuel Mendoza, 31, were arrested last week and charged with robbery and other offenses. Police allege they were targeting homes of Hispanic business owners, believing the merchants kept money in their homes, Snodgrass said.

Groups of Mexican men were recruited to be a part of this band of home invaders.

"We arrested the first group, then (they) went back to Mexico and found more," he said.

Michael Burton Lizama, 29, is in custody on charges of committing two home invasions in the area of Decatur Boulevard and Lone Mountain Road. Police allege he was targeting elderly women.

Detectives are searching for nine men believed to be involved in a series of home invasions in the northeast area of Las Vegas, in which elderly women and young, single women were victims. Victims have described the robbers as being teenagers to young adults, up to 24 years old, and black.

In Sunday's home invasion police are searching for Darren Keith Dowdell, 39, who they believe is in either San Bernardino, Calif., or Mojave County, Ariz.

The incident happened between 1 and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. A man believed to be Dowdell allegedly broke into a home in the 2100 block of Cimarron Road near Sahara Avenue. The female victim, who was an acquaintance of Dowdell, and her boyfriend were held at gunpoint and the intruder demanded money, Snodgrass said.

After ransacking the house and yanking telephone cords from the walls, the intruder tied up the woman's boyfriend and forced the woman at gunpoint into her sport utility vehicle.

"He stuck a gun in her side and told her he was going to kill her," Snodgrass said. The woman was driven to automated teller machines, but Snodgrass said the intruder didn't get any money because the woman's boyfriend had freed himself, then used a cell phone to call police and put a hold on the woman's bank cards.

Snodgrass said the woman's boyfriend, who is Chinese, doesn't speak much English, and a Mandarin-speaking officer was brought to the scene to translate.

"This guy was terrified," he said.

While police were getting his statement and gathering evidence, the victim was being driven to the San Bernardino area. Then the victim was let go.

"He got out of the truck in the desert and just walked away," Snodgrass said. The victim drove back to Las Vegas, stopping at a pay phone along the way to call her boyfriend.

Citizens who have been victims of home invasion robberies are encouraged to call Metro's robbery section at 229-3591 or their area command substation.