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Thieves tied up Dallas woman during robbery
An arrest warrant affidavit says a group of four men attacked a woman in her garage, tied her up and robbed her. Police believe Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez was one of those attackers.
DALLAS - Dallas police have arrested one man after a group of thieves reportedly tied up and robbed a woman at her Northwest Dallas home last month. It was a single fingerprint left behind at the home that helped police make an arrest.
Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez, 28 has been charged with aggravated robbery in connection to the Sept. 21 incident.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a woman pulled into her home on Elsby Avenue in Dallas just before 10 p.m.
The woman told police four unknown men approached her garage as she got out of her vehicle, pointed a gun at the woman and forced her onto the ground.
One of the suspects hit the woman on the head multiple times with a gun, according to the documents. The affidavit says the woman was forced into her home and was tied up with pieces of clothing in her bedroom.
The woman told police the men, who spoke Spanish, used Google Translate to communicate with her during the incident and threatened to cut off her fingers if she did not tell them where her safe was located.
Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez (Source: Dallas County Jail)
The arrest warrant states the men were communicating with an unknown person by phone and kept asking about a safe. The victim told them she didn't have one. It's unclear if she was the intended target.
The suspects made off with $75,000 in jewelry, a Gucci purse, the woman's phone and several coins from a wooden box, according to documents.
The woman told police that she was then taken to the bathroom and told to wait for 10 minutes before moving.
After several minutes, the woman went to a neighbor's home and called police.
When police arrived, the woman still had the clothing that she said was used to tie her up around her neck.
Dallas police said the woman did not go to the hospital for medical treatment.
Investigators on scene say the home appeared to have been ransacked.
"In this particular case where you have an overwhelming number of people, that obviously outnumber her, that are armed that have their identities covered and that are given her instructions specifically as to what to do, she absolutely did the right thing," said Tarleton State University Criminologist Alex Del Carmen, who is not involved in the case.
Detectives were able to identify Hernandez-Hernandez through a fingerprint left behind on a box that contained rare coins that were taken.
The woman was shown a photo lineup of suspects but was not able to identify Hernandez-Hernandez, according to the documents. She told police she wasn't able to see the suspects' faces during the robbery.
Video footage found by police days later showed a possible suspect vehicle and two unknown suspects approaching the woman's garage around the time of the incident.
Records show Hernandez-Hernandez had been arrested and booked by the Colleyville Police Department, on Sept. 19 and was released on the morning of Sept. 20. The circumstances around that arrest are not included in the document.
Hernandez-Hernandez was arrested in Colleyville on Sept. 30. He is currently in the Dallas City Jail on an immigration hold.
FOX 4 has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement about Hernandez-Hernandez.
Social media posts have claimed the men were members of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela. However, Dallas police told FOX 4 there is no evidence supporting that claim.
"There is no evidence at this time to indicate that Hernandez-Hernandez is a member of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela," wrote DPD in response. "This remains an active investigation."
"I don't think we know what we're dealing with, i.e. the level of violence, the methodology that they carry out," Del Carmen said. "And the fact that they're obviously being orchestrated and being organized and being given instructions by another entity that is not on location. And that really concerns me."
Tren de Aragua has become a target of Texas Governor Greg Abbott in recent weeks, who recently designated the gang as a foreign terrorist organization.
The Public Safety Office announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of known or suspected members of the gang.