The Associated Press
ELLENTON, Georgia- Authorities have linked a string of home invasions that left five Mexican immigrants dead with an armed robbery that occurred last month after reviewing descriptions of weapons used in both crimes.
Javier Guzman and Juventino Leon were assaulted in their trailer on Sept. 13 by three men wielding chrome pistols and baseball bats, similar to the weapons used in the south Georgia slayings on Friday.
“The chrome pistols’ descriptions match,” said Colquitt County Sheriff’s investigator David Corona. “We do believe there is a connection.”
At least two of the men killed early Friday in the attacks were shot. Others were beaten with aluminum baseball bats, a weapon used in all of the attacks, said Vernon Keenan, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
On Sunday, police were working with the Mexican consulate in Atlanta to notify victims’ families in Mexico. Investigators were following several leads after police released sketches of two attackers based on descriptions from surviving victims.
Authorities suspect at least two men committed the attacks at four mobile home parks and targeted Hispanics. The killings have terrified Hispanics who come to the region to work in cotton fields and peanut farms.