Katrina pushed crime to Houston

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, January 28, 2006

HOUSTON – At least 23 people who evacuated to Houston during Hurricane Katrina were either the victims or the suspects in killings here between September and December, police say.

Now, eight members of rival New Orleans gangs have been arrested in connection with the slayings of 11 fellow refugees and other violent crimes in the city, police spokesman Alvin Wright said Friday.

“They were doing the same thing in New Orleans,” Wright said. “The hurricane brought those rivalries to Houston.”

Investigators, who were still looking for three suspects, said those slain belonged to the gangs or had some connection to them. Violent crimes attributed to the gangs also have been committed in Houston, Wright said.

Although officials emphasized that the vast majority of the 150,000 Katrina victims who have moved to Houston are law-abiding, they say others are partly responsible for a sharp spike in the city’s crime rate.

Houston Mayor Bill White has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for a new $6.5 million police task force.

Violence has risen not only on streets but in schools. Houston’s school district, which absorbed about 6,000 evacuees, increased security this month after at least a dozen major fights involving displaced students. The worst was a near-riot in a high school lunchroom in December that ended in the arrests of 15 evacuees and 12 local students.

The eight suspects arrested Friday and three at large are accused of murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and other crimes.

All 11 slayings took place in the last three months. Nine occurred in the city’s high-crime southwest side, while the other two were in the Houston suburb of Pasadena.

“The safety of the city of Houston, its citizens and some of the evacuees depends on us arresting these individuals as soon as possible,” Police Chief Harold Hurtt said.