Hispanic advocate: Arrest is a start

RALEIGH -- The director of a statewide Hispanic advocacy group said he applauds the arrest Thursday of a man charged with targeting Hispanics in a wave of robberies near downtown.

But Tony Asion, director of El Pueblo, said he's also certain the suspect "is only one of many who are committing these types of crimes."

In an e-mail message to The News & Observer on Thursday night, Asion said there are more victims who have not come forward because they are afraid of being deported.

That's especially true, Asion said, in what he sees as a growing anti-immigration climate bolstered by the 287(g) program. The program, recently approved in Wake County, partners North Carolina sheriffs with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allows sheriff's deputies to check the immigration status of criminal suspects and to hold suspects who are here illegally for deportation proceedings.

The robbery spree resulted in one homicide and two more victims who were shot.

Police arrested Antoine Jerrod Watkins, who was already in jail waiting to be tried for murder. Police charged him Thursday with taking hundreds of dollars in cash and valuables and shooting two people during a robbery and burglary spree in the downtown area.

Watkins, 26, of Wendell has been in the Wake County jail since April in connection with the Feb. 22 shooting death of Carlos Humberto Martinez during a home invasion robbery at a duplex apartment at 1207-A E. Jones St.

Police charged Watkins with 17 counts of armed robbery, seven counts of first-degree burglary, four counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of attempted armed robbery and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, according to arrest warrants filed at the Wake County Magistrates' Office.

Police think the robberies began in late December and continued until the middle of March. The robberies, burglaries and assaults occurred in working-class neighborhoods on the southern edge of downtown: South, Holmes, Lenoir and Quarry streets.

Watkins was being held without bail on murder, habitual felon and felony drug charges. Bail on the additional charges was set at $2 million.

"We are certainly glad to see Mr. Watkins being arrested and hope that it shows to others who are abusing Latinos that this is something they won't be able to get away with," Asion said.