AFTER HOME INVASION, MISSION POLICE CHIEF TERMS 'BLEED-OVER OF
VIOLENCE' IN SOUTH TEXAS

MISSION - Police Chief Leo Longoria said his city and the surrounding
area has experienced a "bleed-over of violence" coming from Mexico.

His community remains secure, he said, but he still would welcome
National Guard troops to the city, as Gov. Rick Perry has requested
from the federal government for communities along the border.

Above all, Longoria said residents should remain vigilant and aware
of their surroundings.

"I don't believe we have a uncontrollable spillover," he said. "What
we have is a bleed-over of violence."

Home Invasion

Longoria, whose department serves Hidalgo County's third-largest
city, spoke of the bleed-over of violence at a news conference
Wednesday afternoon regarding a home invasion Tuesday night that
resulted in minor injuries - and did not appear to have ties to
transnational drug cartels.

Mission police responded to an emergency call at 10 p.m. Tuesday on
the 2900 block of Tulipan Street. Between five and seven men armed
with a small automatic weapon and handguns stormed into a house,
demanding money from the family.

One of the attackers hit the homeowner with a pistol, causing minor
injuries, Longoria said.

The invaders then fled the scene with a lockbox, setting off a
pursuit that led north along Inspiration Road and ended about half a
mile north, near the intersection with Mile 2 Road.

Officers arrested one man and were questioning four others Wednesday
afternoon. Longoria said the home invaders have ties to an Hidalgo
County-based gang but not to Mexican drug cartels.

None of the suspects are Mexican nationals, police said. The chief
would not say whether the family was targeted at random.

A Bleed-Over?

Besides the home invasion - Longoria said it was the city's first of
2010 - the chief spent much of the half-hour news conference
addressing the widespread drug violence that has plagued communities
south of the Rio Grande this year.

"The violence in Mexico cannot be ignored," Longoria said. "I see the
violence in Mexico as a cough. We need to address that cough before
it becomes an illness."

Longoria also praised the recent attention local lawmakers and Perry
have given to border violence, as well as grant money that has paid
for overtime for officers.

The chief said National Guard troops dispatched to the border
"certainly . would be very helpful in distributing intelligence
information" and "being the eyes and ears for law enforcement," but
not for regular street patrols - a common sight in Mexican border
cities over the past three years.

"We don't want that - I know that," Longoria said regarding the
prospect of U.S. Army patrols in Valley communities. "There's a role
and we need to stay within the focus and provide a service. After
all, isn't that what they do when a hurricane comes? We welcome them
with open arms when we have a disaster."

Longoria said his city has experienced an increase in crime in the
past four years.

Indeed, violent crime incidents per thousand residents jumped by 41
percent between 2005 and 2008 - the most recent four-year period for
which statistics are available from the FBI Uniform Crime Report
database. In the same period, violent crime rose nearly 15 percent in
Pharr but fell by double-digit percentages in Edinburg and McAllen.

Mission's homicide tally dropped from five in 2008 to just one in
2009. There has only been one homicide in the city this year - the
Feb. 5 shooting of a theft suspect by a Mission police sergeant
executing a search warrant.

Despite the rise in crime, Mission still has the fewest incidents of
violent crime per thousand residents among Hidalgo County's four
largest cities.

Crime statistics for 2009 were not immediately available from police.
Longoria did not return several phone calls seeking those numbers
after the news conference.

"Is there spillover, a lawlessness going around? Absolutely not.
That's not happening," he said. "But is there a bleed-over? Is there
an associated element of criminal activity? Well, yeah, there is."

Longoria also said people should be more vigilant by talking to
neighbors and sharing information. When someone shows up at a
person's door, the resident should make himself a "difficult victim"
by remaining aware of his surroundings, locking doors, not answering
the door immediately and taking a phone to the door to call 9-1-1 in
case the need arises.

"It's no different than asking people to not leave the bicycle in the
front lawn at night," Longoria said. "Chances are, it's going to get
picked up. You need to always try to be a difficult victim - every
day of your life."