Police in the Dallas Metroplex have arrested a suspect believed to be part of a group of four men who allegedly forced a woman to the ground, tied her up, threatened to cut off her fingers and then walked away with more than $75,000 worth of cash and items from her home.
Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez, 28, was arrested in Colleyville on Monday and is being held on an immigration hold at the Dallas County Jail, according to an arrest affidavit.
Hernandez-Hernandez had been arrested and released in Colleyville 10 days earlier, but the arrest report didn’t state what those charges were.
The arrest affidavit states that a woman pulled into her driveway in Dallas on Sept. 21, and was approached by four unknown men when she got out of her vehicle. It states she was forced to the ground by gunpoint, then forced into her home and eventually tied up with pieces of clothing in her bedroom.
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She told police that the men spoke Spanish and used Google Translate to communicate with her, threatening to cut off her fingers if she didn’t tell them the location of her safe.
Documents say the men fled with $75,000 in cash, the woman’s phone, a Gucci purse and several coins from a wooden box.
The men allegedly took her to a bathroom and told her to wait at least 10 minutes before moving. She made it several minutes before making her way to the neighbor’s house, where she called the police.
The affidavit says the woman still had some of the clothing tied to her, and that she refused transport to a hospital for medical observation.
Investigators say the woman’s house was ransacked and that Hernandez-Hernandez’s fingerprints were identified from the wooden box which contained the coins.
The woman was shown a lineup of men but told police she didn’t remember any of their faces.
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Police found video footage a few days later showing a possible suspect’s vehicle and two unknown suspects approaching the woman’s garage about the same time of the purported incident.
News of the incident led to social media posts claiming the men were members of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela, but so far no evidence supports that.
“There is no evidence at this time to indicate that Hernandez-Hernandez is a member of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela,” the Dallas Police Department wrote in a response. “This remains an active investigation.”
Tren de Aragua has been a target of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has designated the gang as a foreign terrorist organization.
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