Friends of Refugees

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Denver police say group that killed South Sudanese refugee included gang members

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 18, 2012

Denver police say a group that killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat were out on a night of car theft and trouble-making, and included two unspecified juvenile gang members (it was the Latin Kings gang that attacked Sudanese refugees in 2002 in Chicago). The Denver 911 director has now fired a 911 operator for withholding medical assistance from one of the Sudanese callers, who repeatedly asked for medical aid, and wrongly telling him to return to the scene of the first incident, where Reet was then killed. An article in the Denver Post (and here) has updated information on the case:

Denver police believe a group that included two juvenile gang members out on a night of car theft and troublemaking killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat.

No arrests have been made in the case. Police are asking for the public’s help in locating witnesses or others involved in the shooting in the early hours of April 1.

Reat, 25, was shot in the back blocks from West 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in Denver, where he and other members of his family were taunted by a group of Latino men driving a stolen Jeep who threw bottles and waved a gun at their vehicle.

After the altercation, Reat and his family went to their apartment in Wheat Ridge. A 911 operator told them to return to Denver, where they were fired upon by the same group that had attacked them moments before.

Denver 911 director Carl Simpson on Tuesday fired the operator for mishandling the call.

“Witnesses say there were four or five parties in the vehicle,” Detective Randy Denison said of the suspects’ car. “What we are looking for is to identify the other possible occupants.”

The occupants of the Jeep didn’t flash gang signs or tout any gang affiliation, but the criminal history of the two teens now suspected suggests they are gang members, Denison said. He said he didn’t know whether one of them — or someone else in the Jeep — fired the fatal shot…

…Reat and his companions didn’t see the Jeep until it pulled up beside them at a light. “There was not much conversation. The brothers say these guys just pull up beside them, and they think they are just saying, ‘Hello,’ and Jimma and his friends just kind of wave. They just think these guys are just giving them the nod,” Denison said… Read more here

Posted in Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Holding friend’s child, Sudanese refugee shot to death in Rochester NY street

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 17, 2012

A South Sudanese refugee who arrived in Rochester, NY at age 14 as an unaccompanied minor was murdered on Tuesday. Paul Chol Awuol was holding a friend’s son when a man just came up and shot him in the chest, according to the friend, Jessica Lane. He was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused on helping others, when he went to Smith Street Tuesday to watch Lane’s child. In 2010 Sudanese refugees in Rochester reported finding a bullet hole in their apartment ceiling after three men were shot to death in the apartment above. A report at CBS Channel 8 gives details:

As Rochester police search for a suspect in Tuesday’s Smith Street homicide, friends of Paul Chol Awuol say the Sudanese refugee was shot in the chest while watching a close friend’s son.

Jerry DeLuccio wants people to remember Awuol as more than a crime statistic. “This was a young man that has made such a difference,” he said…

…Awuol was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused more and more on helping others.  That’s what led him to Smith Street Tuesday, to watch a friend’s child.  “He was holding my son in his hand when this man came and just shot him in the chest,” said friend Jessica Lane through tears.

A small memorial has begun where the Sudanese refugee fell, the painful irony all too clear.  The man who came to America as a boy to escape violence was ultimately killed by a gunman.  “That’s what hurts me so much, is that he was ready to explode, in terms of how he would help others and we’re never going to have that chance,” said DeLuccio… Read more here

Posted in dangerous neighborhoods, men, Rochester, safety, South Sudanese, teenagers | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Refugees being attacked at residential complex in Lansing, MI since November

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 26, 2012

“Car break-ins, ’30-plus’ broken windows, an old man getting punched in the face, a young woman…kicked’, and theft.” Those are some of the incidents at Summer Place Townhomes in Lansing, MI that refugees say have happened to them since November. The refugees, from Burma, Bhutan and Iraq, say they have been the target of a group of 10 and 20 local teenagers. Some of the refugees find it hard to sleep at night, while others are taking turns staying up at night to watch for trouble. The Lansing Police Department doesn’t seem to know much about what’s happening though refugees have reported the ongoing crimes. An article at Lansing City Pulse has the story:

…Bo is a refugee from Burma and has lived in Summer Place Townhomes for about seven years…

…since November, Bo and his family haven’t been sleeping due to a combination of fear and duty — they take turns staying up all night to keep intruders away. Several other neighbors in Summer Place report similar situations.

“It’s been quiet, safe, secure,” Bo said, referring to the years leading up to November. Then he rattles off nearly daily instances when he and his neighborhood have been the target of a group of local teenagers, between 10 and 20 of them: car break-ins, “30-plus” broken windows, an old man getting punched in the face, a young woman “about my age kicked by those people,” theft.

So this is why you stand guard overnight. “Yeah, it’s very dangerous. We all worry. You gotta watch out and stay awake.”

Bo fears the worst: that the harassment will turn deadly. At one point, he armed himself with a pellet gun, which he said was subsequently taken by the Lansing Police Department. “We are not shooting for anything. I believe I’m doing the right thing. It’s like I’m security, protecting all people, not just the Burmese.”

As I walk through the neighborhood Saturday before meeting Bo, refugees from Iraq and Bhutan tell similar stories. 

Dozens of young children — from toddlers to teenagers — were playing in the street and courtyards. Adults gathered around, keeping an eye on them. The day before, the group came and broke a car window, said Ammar Mahdi, a 41-year-old refugee from Iraq. Mahdi’s English was broken and, at times, his 10-year-old son, Yousif, acted as a translator.

“We need help. It’s every day,” Mahdi said. “I am not sleeping.”..

…Devi Ghimisey is from Bhutan and about the same age as Mahdi. He lived in a refugee camp in Nepal for 18 years before coming to the U.S. three years ago.

“They come while we’re sleeping. Kids playing football — they come and beat them up. They come and throw rocks,” Ghimisey said.

Recently, the group stole Mohammed Mohahamed’s children’s three bikes. Two weeks ago, they broke his neighbor’s house windows. Mohahamed is 33 and also came from Iraq. “I want to change this trouble,” he said. “I want the street here safe.”…

While this has been going on, arrests have been scarce…neighbors say the response from the Lansing Police Department has been inadequate…

…neighbors say they feel discouraged from calling the police because the trouble keeps happening — even after reports…

…Alfonso Salas, who owns Lansing Athletics sporting goods store…says that while it’s a rough neighborhood to begin with, he thinks it’s racially charged. And he warns that something needs to change, or “it’s gonna get bad.”

“Because of the color of their skin and who they are, they get beat up on,” he said. “I feel for them… Read more here

Posted in abuse, Burma/Myanmar, children, hate crimes, housing, Iraqi, Lansing, Nepali Bhutanese, police, safety | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fire sweeps through apartments housing Myanmar refugees in Albany, NY

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 17, 2012

At least five houses were damaged in a fire that sweep through an historic neighborhood in downtown near the capitol in Albany on Sunday. The building where the fire started was occupied by three Myanmar refugee families resettled by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany. An article at the Albany Times-Union explains:

ALBANY — First, neighbors heard screams. Then they saw the flames.

A wall of fire washed over half a block of Park Avenue in the Mansion neighborhood Sunday evening, drawing every firetruck in the capital city to try to contain a blaze that was roaring in three houses when crews arrived around 8 p.m.

At least five houses erected in the years after the Civil War were damaged, officials said late Sunday. And although half a city block was evacuated as smoke and steam spoiled the mild spring air, no firefighters or residents were injured, according to Mayor Jerry Jennings and Fire Chief Robert Forezzi.

It was too early, the men said, to know how many people were displaced…

…Michele O’Sullivan, 45, was sitting in her apartment at 56 Park Ave. when “we heard screams, then we heard fire, then we looked up and in seconds we saw the flames.” She and several other neighbors said the blaze started at 60 Park Ave., in the back of the top floor. Forezzi and Jennings said an investigation was ongoing and that any word on a cause was premature. That building is occupied by three families who are refugees from the southeast Asian nation of Burma, according to a volunteer for Catholic Charities who assists them. The volunteer declined to be named. Some recently arrived in the city, but others have been here at least two years, the volunteer said… Read more here

Posted in Albany, apartment house fires, Burma/Myanmar | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Another apartment house fire, this time in Louisville

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 16, 2012

Slum lords are notorious for failing to address maintenance issues. One result of this is the danger of fire (and here) due to failure of landlords to keep up the premises. A Nepali refugee family found this out the hard way last Wednesday in Louisville. A note at the Catholic Charities Louisville website identifies one of the families displaced by the fire as refugees:

Catholic Charities (Louisville, KY) – The Hari Subedi refugee family of six, resettled by Catholic Charities about a year and half ago, was one of the families displaced in the Buechel Bank Road Apartment fire today. While they and other residents lost everything, there were no injuries due to the fire.

The Subedi family did not need emergency shelter and are currently living with another Nepali refugee family… Read more here

A tenant in the apartment where the fire started said she awoke to a pop and found a socket beside her daughter’s bed on fire. She claims she began telling her landlord of faulty sockets when she moved into her apartment two years ago. The landlord allegedly placed tape over sockets in the apartment’s kitchen and told her an electrician would repair them, yet an electrician never came to the apartment to inspect the sockets. An article at the Louisville Courier-Journal has more:

Officials are investigating a fire that destroyed a building and displaced eight families Wednesday afternoon at an apartment complex in the 2100 block of Buechel Bank Road…

…Chrishawna Johnson, who was asleep in the apartment where the fire started, said she believes the fire was caused by an electrical short.

“I heard a pop and I jumped up,” Johnson said. “When I came out of my room, my daughter’s bedroom was on fire. The socket beside her bed was on fire.”

Johnson said she began telling her landlord — whom she could not identify — of faulty sockets when she moved into her apartment two years ago. The landlord placed tape over sockets in the apartment’s kitchen and told Johnson an electrician would repair them, Johnson said.

An electrician never came to the apartment to inspect the sockets, Johnson said.

A message left at Willowbrook’s leasing office was not immediately returned Wednesday.

No sprinklers were present in the building, and no fire hydrants are on the property… Read more here

Posted in apartment house fires, Catholic Charities of Louisville Inc., housing, housing, substandard, Louisville, Nepali Bhutanese | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Many incidents in Denver of South Sudanese refugees being attacked, hassled and threatened

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 10, 2012

In addition to the two recent murders of South Sudanese refugees in Denver, the director of ECDC African Community Center says that there have been many incidents of the refugees being attacked, hassled and threatened in the city. A young South Sudanese man was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the waist down when two men robbed him as he returned to his Denver apartment one afternoon last June. Another South Sudanese refugee reports having been laughed at, called ugly and told to go back to where he came from. A teenage girl once threatened to hit him with a rock, he said, and he believes that the Sudanese have been victims due to their darker color (most Sudanese have skin that is darker than that of the average African-American). An article in the Denver Post gives other details of abusive treatment and crimes against local South Sudanese residents:

Jimma Reat’s murder last week in Denver was one more blow to a war-scarred community of Sudanese refugees still struggling to come to grips with the unsolved shooting death of Reat’s uncle four months ago.

The immigrants from the African country are frequently victims, said Project Education Sudan director Carol Rinehart.

“There are a lot of incidents with Sudanese being attacked, hassled and threatened,” Rinehart said. “They have been through a lot of trauma, and to have this happen to them, it just creates more anxiety.”…

…”This is a community that knows death. That doesn’t make it any easier,” said Jennifer Gueddiche, director of the ECDC African Community Center…

…David Deng, who came to the United States in 2001, was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the waist down when two men robbed him as he returned to his Denver apartment one afternoon last June. When a friend called and told him of Reat’s death, the news hit him hard.

“That is scaring me,” said Deng, 30. “We don’t know why there are a lot of bad things happening.”

His sentiment is widely shared within the tight-knit community of refugees that numbers about 6,000, Gueddiche said…

…”This is huge. They’re just absolutely devastated,” she said. “Imagine coming to a place where you are supposed to be safe. … This is the second random act of violence on this community.”

The recent burst of violence began Dec. 26, when Reat’s uncle, Youn Malual, was shot and killed in the parking lot of his Arapahoe County apartment building.

A father of five, he was returning from his job as a bus mechanic when he was attacked. He had no enemies, said Dengpathot, who thinks Malual’s death was the result of someone’s road rage.

His killer hasn’t been caught. Denver police also are still seeking those involved in Reat’s death. The longer the killers stay free, the more likely they — or someone else — will hurt another person, said Reat’s uncle, Thomas Puot…

…Authorities in Denver and Arapahoe County have said they have no reason to think the shootings of Mulual and Reat are related.

“At this point, we don’t have any indication of a connection, but it is something we will keep open,” said Denver police Capt. Ron Saunier, head of the Crimes Against Persons Bureau. “I don’t want to rule it out.”

The investigation into Malual’s death is active, and investigators are working on “significant” leads, said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.

Saunier said there is no indication that Reat’s death is gang-related.

The assailants, who appeared to be Latino, screamed racial epithets during the attack, said Reat’s brother, Ran James Pal, 25, who was driving that night.

That racial slurs would be part of the assault doesn’t surprise Isaac Bher, 32, who immigrated in 2001 and is now a U.S. citizen. Most Sudanese have skin that is darker than that of the average African-American.

“I know we have been victims by our darker color,” Bher said. “Even the African-Americans are not very happy with us.”

He said he has been laughed at, called ugly and told to go back to where [he] came from. A teenage girl once threatened to hit him with a rock, he said… Read more here

Posted in African Community Center (Denver), dangerous neighborhoods, Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Sudanese refugee shot to death after police dispatcher says to return to place of gun threat

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 9, 2012

A 24-year-old Sudanese refugee in Denver was shot to death while riding in his brother’s car after a police dispatcher instructed his brother to go back to the scene where someone had threatened them with a gun. The dispatcher also failed to send a police officer to the scene for about four minutes after the brother reported that men had threatened them with a gun. The original incident started at a traffic light as the young Sudanese men were driving when a Jeep rolled up beside them and men inside started to call them names using the N-word. The men got out of a Jeep (a stolen vehicle) and threw beer bottles, breaking the car’s rear window. Last December an uncle of the young man killed was also shot to death behind his home after returning home from work in the early morning hours, in a crime that is still unsolved. An article in the Denver Post documents what happened during the latest incident:

A Denver 911 operator was mistaken when he told a motorist to return to the area where he and his companions had been threatened in a road-rage incident — moments before a fatal shooting, the head of the city’s emergency phone system acknowledged Monday.

Jimma Reat, a 24-year-old Sudanese refugee, died in the incident.

Reat and three companions had safely returned to his Wheat Ridge apartment and called 911 to report the altercation early Sunday when the 911 operator instructed them to drive back to Denver and wait for a police officer.

While they waited, a Jeep that had been involved in the earlier incident appeared and someone opened fire, killing Reat…

…failed to dispatch a police officer for about four minutes after one of Reat’s brothers told him that a carload of men, one of them flourishing a gun, threatened them…

…Reat’s brother, Gatwec Dengpathot, said the group had returned to the parking lot at Reat’s apartment in Wheat Ridge after the altercation, during which someone threatened them with a gun…

…One of Reat’s brothers, who was driving the Dodge Charger, was on a cellphone talking to the operator.

“He told the dispatcher that it isn’t safe there,” Dengpathot said. “We don’t want to go there, that is where the problem happened, they were threatening us with a gun.”

But after a few moments, “they finally submitted to the (operator’s) authority” and returned to West 29th Avenue, just east of Sheridan Boulevard, within Denver’s border, Dengpathot said…

…The original incident started at a traffic light as the group was driving north on Sheridan, at West 10th, when the Jeep rolled up beside the Charger, and the men inside started to call them “names using the N-word,” Dengpathot said.

The men, he said, got out of the Jeep and threw beer bottles, breaking the Charger’s rear window… Read more here

Posted in African Community Center (Denver), dangerous neighborhoods, Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Clues don’t necessarily point to hate crime in killing of Iraqi refugee

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 6, 2012

Although police have not finished an investigation of the killing of an Iraqi woman in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon on March 21, new clues seem to point away from the suggestion by a threatening note left at the crime scene that this was a hate crime. Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five, resettled to the US in the 1990′s. An article at Reuters points to new clues linked to the crime:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Court papers filed by police in the beating death of an Iraqi-American woman near San Diego cite her divorce plans and daughter’s apparent suicide attempt last year, but do not point to further evidence that the murder was a hate crime.

Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five, was found bludgeoned in her rented home in a refugee community of the San Diego suburb of El Cajon on March 21 and died of her injuries several days later, after doctors removed her from life support.

A threatening note found at the scene has given rise to suggestions that Alawadi may have been targeted because of her ethnicity, though police have cautioned against drawing that conclusion during the investigation.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed last week and obtained by Reuters on Thursday, a relative of Alawadi told detectives the victim had “been planning on divorcing her husband and moving to the state of Texas.” The documents show that divorce papers were found in her car.

The whereabouts of the victim’s husband, Kassim Alhimidi, at the time of the incident, also had not been confirmed, police said in the court papers… Read more here

Posted in hate crimes, Iraqi, Islamic, San Diego | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Water Safety For Refugees

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 20, 2012

After the accidental drowning of an African refugee boy last summer on the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities area of Illinois, local organizations assisting refugees (not the local resettlement agency – World Relief) asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District for African language water safety information. The Corps has now responded with a water safety program to teach immigrants how to stay safe while enjoying recreation in or near the water in the US. An article at the official homepage of the US Army has more:

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (March 19, 2012) — The drowning of an African immigrant last summer on the Mississippi River resulted in a request for African language water safety information that will help prevent such a tragedy from happening again.The 11-year-old boy was from Burundi, Africa. He moved to the U.S. four years ago and to the Quad Cities two years ago. The Church of Peace in Rock Island, Ill., and the Community Resource and Learning Center of Moline, Ill., work with refugees to educate, train and prepare them for new lives in local communities.

After the drowning, these organizations contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District to provide water safety programs to teach immigrants how to stay safe while enjoying recreation in or near the water in America.

This information program presented challenges in both culture and language…

…”We found that the programs were more successful by creating presentations with some key word translations and having a native translator on site to communicate our water safety message in their language,” said Lou Ann McCracken, a natural resources specialist with the Mississippi River Project… Read more here

Related: Arizona Daily Star – Refugees learn swim skills in free program

Posted in drowning, Quad-Cities, World Relief | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Requiring Refugees To Take Driving Tests in English Leads To Tragedy In Utah

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 3, 2012

A new Utah driver license law intended to help refugees get drivers licenses and become economically self-sufficient, is so narrow in its time focus that most refugees are still unable to use interpreters to get a license (a picture-based test was eliminated several years ago). The law only allows new refugees – those without green cards – to have an interpreter with them while taking the English-only test. Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo plans to propose changes to help refugees who have their green cards and are no longer eligible to have translators assist them during the driving exam – one idea is to allow refugees to take the test with an interpreter for up to four years before having them reapply in English.

In the meantime refugees who desperately need jobs find that a car is often a necessity to get to work in areas not served by public transportation, or for shifts that are at night. This has tempted some of them to go to other states such as Colorado and Arizona where its easier to get a drivers license, bypassing Utah’s requirement of a week of safe driving classes.

The most recent tragedy likely resulting from the current requirements was an automobile accident this week that claimed the life of a refugee teenager from Myanmar, and which nearly killed he mother. An article in the Salt Lake Tribune explains:

Though Kyaw Wah lost his only daughter in a car accident near Heber this week…

Kyaw Wah’s wife and daughter were in Salt Lake City on Monday, working on paperwork for Medicaid and food stamps. They asked a friend, who is also a refugee, to drive them home to Heber.

Troopers say the car veered off Highway 40, crashed into a culvert and rolled. There are conflicting reports on which of the five people in the car were wearing seat belts. Mu La Er, 14, was apparently ejected from the car…

The Burmese community has offered auto-safety workshops for refugees, which include seat-belt demonstrations.

But for Ler Wah, a refugee from Burma who works as an employment counselor, the accident is a reminder of the hurdles faced by refugees seeking Utah driver licenses.

Since the elimination of a picture-based test several years ago, most refugees are required to take the test in English.

Only those who have arrived recently qualify to use [interpreters]. That leads hundreds of refugees to skirt residency requirements to get licenses in Arizona and Colorado, where translation is allowed, advocates say.

The driver in Monday’s accident had a license from Arizona, said Trooper Thomas Simpson with Utah Highway Patrol.

Ler Wah is concerned those drivers are sidestepping requirements and not getting adequate training.

“Those who go to Colorado or Arizona, they go there one day, they pay and they’re finished,” he said. “Here in Utah, it’s totally different — you’ll be in class for a week.”

…a car is often a necessity for adults trying to get to work in areas not served by public transportation or for shifts that are at night.

Ler Wah would like to see the driver license rules change. “We don’t want this to happen again,” he said… Read more here

Posted in Burma/Myanmar, driving instruction, safety, teenagers, Utah | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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