Posted on 08/19/2007 5:18:51 PM PDT by Global2010
News Release from: Klamath Co. Sheriff's Office PERSON OF INTEREST SOUGHT IN SHOOTING Posted: August 19th, 2007 4:39 PM
The Klamath County Major Crime team is seeking to contact a person of interest in the shooting of three Klamath Falls residents early this morning. The person of interest is Matthew Avina-Norris, 22. Avina-Norris is described by authorities as an
Hispanic male, with brown hair and brown eyes, 5'11'' tall and 175 lbs.
Authorities believe Avina-Norris has ties to communities throughout the western United States.
Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Avina-Norris can call the Sheriff's Office Tip Line at 541-883-5145 ext. 603, 24 hours a day. No one should attempt to approach Avina-Norris.
As released earlier, three apparent gunshot victims were found injured, two fatally, early Sunday morning at an apartment at 4520 Bristol Avenue, according to Klamath County Chief Deputy District Attorney David P. Groff.
Preliminary investigation found that Marissa Lynn Orlow, 20, was found dead at the scene.
David Joshua Kitts, 22 and Melissa Ann Kitts, 18, were transported to the hospital, where David Kitts later died.
David and Melissa were husband and wife. Next of Kin have been notified by the authorities.
The Klamath County Major Crime Team has been activated and is investigating the deaths.
"This case is being investigated as an apparent double homicide," Groff said.
Detectives and investigators with the Klamath County Sheriff's Office, the Klamath Falls City Police, the Oregon State Police, Klamath County Community Corrections and the OSP Crime Lab are all involved.
"The Major Crime Team is actively pursuing a variety of leads at this time," Groff said. Preliminary investigation suggests that this is not a domestic violence matter.
The investigation is ongoing and more information may become available Monday.
Not official but I heard 3 possible types of vehicles Black Cadillac, White Bronco or Silver Prelude.
OK, they know he has ties to communities in the western US. Do they know his immigration status then, too?
ping
JMO I am concerned that with the illegal migrant workers not showing up to Washington and Oregon fruit picking season due to fear of ICE deportations that crime may go up in robberies.
Where did the article say he was an illegal?
Would you be in the market for a nice shiny hat that stops radio waves?
It didn’t.
Nor did I.
Authorities: Mexican drug cartel operating in Oregon | KATU - Portland, Oregon | Local & Regional
Address:http://www.katu.com/news/local/9186377.html Changed:5:40 PM on Sunday, August 19, 2007
Large check fraud ring targets local, mostly Hispanic businesses
By Thacher Schmid
Aug 18, 2007 - 11:17:02 pm PDT
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The strange men showed up on a Friday late in the afternoon, when migrant farm workers often come to El Tigre, a Latino grocery store on Oregon Way, to cash payroll checks.
They wore dirty, disheveled clothing, like many of the workers of rural Mexican origin who use places like El Tigre to cash checks. They bought food and clothing and bickered about having money for lunch after paying rent.
They had payroll checks apparently issued that day, June 8, by the Kelso Foster Farms chicken processing plant, plus Mexican consular ID cards and detailed knowledge of the area and Foster Farms operations. When El Tigre owner Antonio Aguilar questioned one, the man calmly said he hung chickens on the production line.
Neri Aguilar felt something wasn’t right that day, she said last week, because such a large group of Foster Farms employees has never showed up at the same time, and never all strangers. She couldn’t sleep that night, but she felt better after she and her husband went to Fibre Federal Credit Union the next morning and a teller assured them the checks were real, she said.
The next day the men came back and cashed more checks. A week later, Antonio Aguilar got a phone call back from the credit union, and Neri Aguilar watched the color drain from her husband’s face.
“Is it the checks?” she asked.
The couple lost $21,442, and El Tigre teetered on the brink of bankruptcy before the Aguilars took out a second mortgage on their home. That weekend, El Tigre was victimized by what authorities now think is a sophisticated, regionwide check forgery ring that also hit three other local businesses: Cowlitz Bank, Kelso grocery Tienda El Jarocho and ‘Til Payday, a Longview payday loan store.
The group seems to target businesses that employ large populations of Hispanic immigrants. Locally, police say, the crooks cashed 74 counterfeit Foster Farms checks and walked off with over $52,000 — possibly the most damaging local check fraud case ever.
“This is the first time we’ve dealt with anything like this,” said Kelso police Detective Mark Berglund, one of three local law enforcement officials involved.
Targeting businesses
Foster Farms vice president of human resources Tim Walsh refused to share any information about the company’s own investigation of the fraud.
“It’s no bad reflection on our company, it just happened to be our checks that they forged,” Walsh said.
Several investigators said it’s clear the ring is targeting businesses that employ large numbers of Mexican immigrants.
“They dress the part of the field workers, and they play the part,” said Detective Miguel Sanchez of Walla Walla police, one of several Northwest jurisdictions where similar crimes have occurred. The Walla Walla crime involved two businesses that employ heavily Hispanic populations, Sanchez said.
“That seems to be the theme,” said Longview police Detective Doug Kazensky, when asked about a possible focus on Latino migrants. “It at least makes sense to me to pick businesses that are associated with Hispanic or Latino workers to draw less suspicion.”
“What would happen a lot of times, the suspects, who all happen to be Hispanic, would just file in with legitimate workers,” Kazensky said. “They would come on payday, just around closing and basically glide through real quick.”
“What’s really odd is they all have local information,” said Debbie, ‘Til Payday’s manager, who declined to give her last name. “They somehow came up with local addresses, to the point that one of the local names and addresses matched up with a local customer of ours that had cashed a check in 2000.”
“It’s not like they come into town in one day and do this. It was a big, complicated thing, I think.”
Police have a sizeable amount of evidence, including fingerprints, video surveillance images, copies of the IDs used and the checks themselves. However, there are few strong leads, Berglund said.
Weak spot
Migrant farm workers from rural Mexico, some of whom speak indigenous languages such as Zapoteca or Mixteca and have no driver’s license or state ID, frequently use smaller, family-owned Latino stores like El Tigre or Tienda El Jarocho to cash payroll checks because they can’t get or don’t want regular bank accounts.
“There’s a lot of people who come from the fields, it’s really hard for them to cash a check at the banks,” Neri Aguilar said.
It’s difficult for undocumented immigrants to open a banking account. Fibre Federal Credit Union, for example, does not issue bank accounts even if a person has consular ID cards or U.S. work permits (green cards), though a current driver’s license and state ID card will suffice, said Shelly Buller, Fibre Federal’s vice president of member services.
In the June 8-11 forgery spree, most checks were cashed using Mexican consular ID cards, which probably were fake, police say. The crooks, an estimated 15 to 20 Hispanic males appearing to be in their 30’s and 40’s, gave fake local addresses and phone numbers.
The paper checks the ring used were of top quality, looking uncannily real. They appeared to be written off the Foster Farm’s account at Cowlitz Bank, down to the correct account number. Two other keys to the group’s success have been getting out fast — they were long gone before banks or police realized something was amiss — and knowing many immigrants cash checks with little or no ID.
Fibre Federal Credit Union’s Larry Hoff said the credit union does not verify the validity of checks brought in by business owners such as Antonio and Neri Aguilar of El Tigre, leaving that up to the Federal Reserve.
Hoff, the chief executive officer, agreed the checks were of high quality. While he wasn’t privy to what the Fibre Federal teller told the Aguilars June 9, the teller would have checked basics such as whether there was a fraud alert, or money in the Foster Farms account. Hoff said.
“We as an organization can’t assure that a check is good in any regard,” Hoff said. “We called Cowlitz Bank (on June 9) and there was no fraud alert, and the account was good and there was a balance. That’s a step farther than we normally do for batch deposits.”
It appears the suspects, or another group with the same techniques, also hit the Tri-Cities area, Milton-Freewater, Ore. and Sandpoint, Idaho. Police think the cases are linked because they share a similar modus operandi and all involved high-quality forgeries.
One suspect, Alejandro Luna Medrano, who has legal residency status, is in custody in Umatilla County in Oregon, Detective Sanchez said.
Sanchez said that a Tri-Cities business, Los Tapatios, also operates the Wayside Market in Umatilla County.
“When (the suspect) walked in to the Wayside, the owner was there, he confronted him, he ran out of the business and through some fields and orchards and chased him down. This guy was so incensed, because big companies, when they lose $15,000, it’s no biggie. When a family-owned Latino business loses that much money — a couple of the family-owned businesses here are facing bankruptcy.”
Walla Walla is trying to extradite Medrano. The Seattle offices of the FBI and Secret Service declined to say whether they are involved in the investigation, but Kazensky said Longview police are “looking at” the possibility of federal involvement now.
“It could be so many different agencies’ jurisdiction,” said Special Agent Robbie Burroughs, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Seattle regional office.
Cash without IDs
Tienda El Jarocho only got scammed on two checks, totaling about $1,400, perhaps because the store requires a state ID. Manager Ruby Ordinola said the Kelso business cashes about 400 checks per month, and she wasn’t sure how those two slipped through.
“We ask for ID and a phone number, and usually we know our customers and we have their ID on file. So that’s why I don’t know what happened (with these two checks) because there was no ID to those checks,” Ordinola said.
The crime has caused changes at the businesses that were hit. Foster Farms switched from Cowlitz Bank to Wells-Fargo — the company’s main bank nationally — for its local checking since the scam, Walsh confirmed.
El Tigre now will cashes checks only for known individuals and is considering additional security steps, such as installing more in-store cameras.
Tienda El Jarocho no longer cashes Foster Farms checks at all, and ‘Til Payday is more vigilant.
“It’s really hard, now, to have a Hispanic man come in here with a check,” said Debbie, the manager at the payday loan store. “I’m going to verify everything on it.”
Cowlitz Bank referred questions to police investigators, but Detective Blaine said Cowlitz Bank, which cashed 25 fakes, accepted some without requiring any ID at all.
“Some of the checks and balances normally in place weren’t necessarily followed to a tee that day,” Detective Berglund said.
The Til Payday manager said the ring brought in the only Foster Farms checks her business cashed that weekend, 17 in all, and she feels “disgusted.”
“It’s really a sad situation that happened,” she said. “The Hispanic population that we see come in here are usually a very hard-working population. We have a lot of very trustworthy Hispanic men.”
“Now, I don’t trust any of them.”
The crime left a bitter taste in Neri Aguilar’s mouth as well. Recalling years of arriving for work at 5 a.m., Aguilar said she and her husband lost some of their passion. “All my effort, in a few hours — gone.”
Well then, not sure what the point of mentioning illegals on an article like this is (which you did). There are a lot of Hispanics, such as myself, who are the descendants of legal immigrants and oppose illegal immigration. When people mention illegals simply at the drop of a Hispanic name, it causes a useless guilt-by-association statement to be made, and harms the legitimate voice behind the anti-illegal immigration movement.
Where did I say this hispanic man was Illegal?
I am the first one to defend the diffence.
Your preaching to the choir.
I was raised from 1st generation Asians. I know about how relatives came with green cards and some in later years migrated through Canada.
If you are talking about the fruit picking post I made it was a different news story that has undocumented workers not showing up for this season in the PNW due to fear of ICE.
Different thread I started to point out the how well the PNW pays and in that non hispanic unemployed workers should get off their buts to make a non govt. paycheck.
You can look it up.
End.
As Global2010 noted, he did not say that the murder suspect status as a possible illegal alien. Nor did I. But I did raise the issue. I did so because: (1) in 1987 Oregon passed a law according so-called sanctuary status to illegal aliens, (2) knowing where a person originates from is a strong lead in apprehending him (criminals on the run return to places they are familiar with and can hide in more easily, and rely on friends’ support to avoid detection and arrest).
It is pretty simple, a Canadian who just murdered two young people would likely retreat to whence he came from across the border. Likewise for an illegal alien from any country.
There is a bona fide law enforcement reason for seeking the information. And given Oregon’s law, one wonders if the crime was preventable.
Two young people, just starting out life, were killed. Their parents and justice deserve the full application of law and a thorough and effective search for the murderer.
If people’s sensitivities are aroused at my raising the possibility of the suspect’s alien status, given Oregon law and normal apprehension techniques, then please respond with sources that refute the facts contained herein.
I heard this on TV, but not really any more details.
Photo here and another article. I don’t see any gang tatoos.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august192007/homicide_kf_81907.php
Thanks for your response.
There are some hateful people like I saw on a documentary where a fellow Tribal member goes on his own to put out water for people who are decent but starving and come into this country illegally.
I don’t condone their choice but for someone to go out and slash these gallon jugs of water that this man on his own puts out is inhumane.
There are two sides to every coin.
When someone murders and with no connection to the victems I think public safety and apprehend this creep ASAP.
My note to KATU tv news was that I wished the investigators would have gotten the info on mode of travel and plate numbers out along with their media issued statement.
They were not privy to that info for release. Too bad. Should be broadcasted like an Amber Alert mode would be if this man is so dangerous.
Before he kills again.
More So. Oregon news...Traitorous citizens or illegal aliens. All the same scum.
By NEWS 10’s Libby Dowsett -— The former director of an Ashland Islamic charity is back in the U.S. and in federal custody.
Pete Seda is known as an outspoken leader in the Islamic community, especially after 9-11.
Seda has been a fugitive since the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation as a group supporting terrorism.
Seda was Co-director of the chapter in Ashland.
Seda faces conspiracy, money laundering and tax fraud charges.
Prosecutors claim he helped smuggle 150-thousand dollars out of the United States to Saudi Arabia through the charity, then filed a false tax return to cover it up.
One of his attorneys told the Associated Press that Seda is a U.S. citizen and decided it was time to confront the charges.
Seda will remain in custody at least until his arraignment next Wednesday.
http://www.ktvl.com/news/seda_15867___article.html/islamic_ashland.html
Thanks for posting the link as it shows a very clear picture of this wanted man/boy.
Further on the illegal alien matter and sanctuary and re my previous post regarding the legitimate basis for such information in the apprehension of a murder suspect (and JillValentine’s apparent umbrage at my raising the issue):
We now have AuntB’s link to what appears to be a jail/booking mug shot of the suspect. He looks as if he is being booked after having been involved in a fist fight given his facial bruises. That means he was previously in police custody (probably in Oregon) and that given Oregon’s sanctuary law, his immigration status was not inquired of.
There is now the distinct possibility that he is an illegal alien and that, had he been deported as a result of his prior arrest, TWO YOUNG PEOPLE would be alive today.
Again, for those who see gathering immigration status of arrestees as “hateful” the parents of two just married but now murdered 20 somethings will have a very different view.
> a fellow Tribal member goes on his own to put out water for people who are decent but starving and come into this country illegally.<
Aiding and abetting illegal aliens. Just because you are poor, that doesn’t give you any moral right to commit a crime. Entering America without coming through a port of Entry is a crime. A crime that cost American taxpayers billions of dollars every year.
If you wish to express support for these people then I suggest that you send your own American dollars to Mexico so they can buy food and educate their children without becoming criminals.
Thanks for the info. This wouldn’t have anything in relation to do with an “incident” down in K Falls not to long ago would it?
What incident was that if I may ask?
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