by Yael Williger for the West Orlando News
When Antonio Perez went to the 7-11 on Valentine’s Day 2007 to buy a Gatorade, he didn’t know it would be the last walk he would ever take. Minutes after leaving the Rosemont store, he and his friend were approached by two or three young African-American men in an Escalade, one of whom had been behind Perez in the store. Antonio, not understanding English, said “no comprendo,” to the men and walked away as they demanded his wallet. This was a mistake. As Antonio’s friend ran, one of the men shot Perez twice and then took his wallet, cell phone, and jewelry. That done, the man shot the immobilized Perez again repeatedly, leaving him to die in the parking lot.
Today, Antonio is a thoracic paraplegic, permanently disabled as a result of the attack. According to his cousin’s wife Krystao Perez, Antonio was targeted deliberately because he is a Mexican national, and he’s not the only one. She says, “They don’t use banks because they don’t have ID, so they either keep their cash under their mattress, or they stuff it in their wallet. So they sometimes have large amounts of cash on them. They don’t go to the police because they’re afraid to – they don’t even talk to each other when they’re robbed. They just stand there and hope they aren’t killed.”
Mexicans in the Rosemont area are a favorite target of criminals from the Pine Hills area, says Perez. “They don’t live there, but they are too hot in their own neighborhood, so they come and sell drugs and commit other crimes.” Living in the Rosemont area, she said, she couldn’t walk down the street without “being offered drugs or propositioned for prostitution. I was always afraid of being robbed. After a year, I had to leave.”
Jose Medina Navarro, another Mexican victim of violence, was a victim of a home invasion last March. He and his friends were living together to save on rent, and they were at home when two African-American males broke in without warning. No one in the apartment understood English, but they guessed what the men wanted and began taking off their jewelry. When Jose tried to convince his roommates not to give up their jewelry and, failing that, tried to escape, the invaders shot him in the back. Unlike Antonio, Jose died as a result of his injuries.
The police in the Rosemont area, according to Perez, aren’t able to stop Mexican residents from being targeted. She says, “It went on all the time. The police would sometimes leave a car outside of my old apartment complex because people had come into the neighborhood to sell drugs. But after a while, they realized, there’s no cop there. And they came back.”
There has been an arrest in the shooting of Jose Navarro, but no one has yet been arrested for the shooting of Antonio Perez. His cousin’s wife, Krystao Perez thinks it is unlikely anyone ever will. “You know how they look at it? And I hate to say it? Just another Mexican.”
