On the afternoon of June 4, Billy Daniel López García was making plans for the future. He took his girlfriend to a jewelry store and surprised her with a silver promise ring. He vowed to propose after her 20th birthday.
Before heading out to celebrate, the couple went to check on Mr. López García’s father at the family’s grocery store, Tienda Los Hermanos, which sells products from their native Guatemala.
They had been deeply unsettled by a string of violent robberies at other nearby Latino-owned businesses in Montgomery, Ala. — a restaurant worker shot in the hip after he took out the trash, an armed man terrifying customers at a Mexican ice cream store.
Only minutes before closing time, two armed men entered Tienda Los Hermanos, opened fire and killed Mr. López García, his father and a family friend.
“The United States is very dangerous,” Mr. López García’s girlfriend, Michelle Nambo Beltran, said. “It was Danny’s dream to be here,” she added, but “coming here cost him his life.”
The shooting — the deadliest outburst of gun violence in the city this year — shocked many in Montgomery. But in interviews, Latino residents, activists and business owners said they had been sounding the alarm for months, describing the killings at Tienda Los Hermanos as the predictable culmination of an unchecked pattern of robberies and burglaries.
“We’re all afraid,” said Maria Morales, who with her husband owns a Mexican ice cream shop, La Moraleja. The store has been robbed three times since they opened it last year; the first time was in April, when robbers pointed guns at two of their teenage daughters.
Robberies have surged this year across Montgomery, with city data showing that there were almost 300 robberies in the first half of this year, compared with about 403 in all of 2023. If the trend continues, the city could have 50 percent more robberies this year than in 2023.
Though the city says it does not track crimes by the victims’ race or ethnicity, officials have acknowledged that Latino businesses in particular have been targeted, in part because they often trade primarily in cash.
“We see you, we hear you and we’re not going to stand for this,” Mayor Steven Reed said during a news conference the day after the shooting.
The pattern of robberies preying on Latinos has been seen elsewhere, too. In 2023, a man pleaded guilty for his role in a robbery spree that targeted businesses owned by Latinos in North Philadelphia, and Latino street vendors in Chicago were the victims of armed thefts. For years, the police in Durham, N.C., have also dealt with robberies aimed at Latinos.
In Montgomery, residents say the situation is exacerbated by police response times that stretch past an hour, a lack of Spanish-speaking officers and concerns among some undocumented immigrants that engaging with the authorities could lead to deportation.
Montgomery — Alabama’s capital and home to about 200,000 residents — has struggled to recruit police officers in recent years, as have many other cities amid the increased scrutiny on policing after the murder of George Floyd. (Birmingham, Ala., is creating a citizen patrol force to assist its understaffed police department.)
Mayor Reed has acknowledged that the city needs more police officers, and has pointed to an upcoming 15 percent raise for frontline officers as a sign that the city is working to fix the issue.
Many of the robberies remain unsolved, though a suspect has been charged in the killings of Mr. López García; his father, Ramiro Romero López Temaj; and George Elijah Jr., a family friend and the person who had sold the promise ring to Mr. López García. The police are still seeking another suspect, and a reward for information leading to arrests has increased several times and is now at $40,000.
There are about 10,000 Latinos living in and around Montgomery; it’s a growing community that includes new arrivals from Mexico and Central America as well as an earlier wave of people who relocated from states like California after the 2008 financial crisis. They have been drawn by Alabama’s lower cost of living and opportunities to work in construction, auto manufacturing, hospitality and tourism.
The businesses that serve them are largely clustered along a busy freeway, about eight miles from the State Capitol and near several mobile home communities where immigrants live.
Officials and residents said it appeared that criminals were preying upon these businesses because their customers, some of whom are undocumented, often exist in the cash economy.
“They know that Latinos can’t defend themselves,” said José Vázquez, whose stepfather was shot in the hip in May at Tipico de Mexico, their family-run restaurant.
In Montgomery, residents said they had been robbed or burglarized at home, on the street and even in the parking lot of the Our Lady Queen of Mercy Catholic Church. Several activists said that these crimes were most likely underreported because previous episodes where the police had questioned a person’s immigration status had sowed deep distrust within the Latino community.
The police have tried to quell some of these concerns, with John W. Hall, the acting chief, saying in a statement that the department’s “sole concern is to assist victims of crime.”
“We want to build trust and reassure you that you can approach us, not just to report a crime, but also to collaborate with us in its resolution, without any fear of us checking your status,” he said.
Mr. Vázquez of Tipico de Mexico also acknowledged that help may have arrived earlier if all of the robberies had been reported. “We have some fault in this,” he said.
But some residents who reported robberies described feeling dismissed by officers because they didn’t speak English, while others said the police sometimes took as long as an hour to respond.
Over the past few months, Jose Luis Cano was the victim of several burglaries that he did not report to the police. Someone broke into his home, he said, and he recently witnessed a thief taking the stereo from his car.
“We live with fear here,” he said.
On a recent day, several of the businesses that line the freeway were largely deserted. Owners estimated that their traffic was down at least 20 percent since the deaths at Tienda Los Hermanos.
They now keep their doors closed all day, only letting in customers they recognize, and are vigilant toward anyone roaming around their stores. Some have hired security or are carrying pistols themselves, and are encouraging their regular customers to do the same.
Mercedes Adiles, an intern at a local Christian summer camp, used to treat her five children to ice cream at La Moraleja. Now, “we plan to not come out a lot,” she said. “You can be there at the wrong time.”
Some business owners said staff members were hesitant to return. Keon Thomas, an employee at La Moraleja, wanted to close the ice cream shop after he and a customer were robbed on Memorial Day.
“I was scared,” he said. “I didn’t want to come in at all.”
The only business with much of a crowd lately has been Tienda Los Hermanos. A steady stream of people have come to leave their condolences or a donation for the victims’ families, bringing a welcome sense of community after the tragedy.
On July 1, that spirit was punctured once again. Burglars twice broke into the store, stealing a safe.
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