HOUSTON – A man was charged Tuesday in connection with a two-county crime spree that police said targeted members of the Asian community.
Derrick Rogers, 41, who police said was being held in the Harris County jail on unrelated charges, was charged with aggravated assault of a family member, burglary of a habitation, robbery with bodily injury and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in connection with a string of crimes that began in June 2017 and ended in September.
Houston police said Rogers would stalk and conduct surveillance on Asian women in both Harris and Fort Bend counties for several days before stealing their jewelry, designer purses and large amounts of cash.
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"Our biggest fear with this suspect is that he did it so much and so long and went undetected," said Russell Gray, a detective sergeant with the HPD. "The trend here was that he stepped up his game. It's one thing to do burglaries when no one is home and you can get away with it. There's no witnesses, you're stealing property. But toward the latter part of this crime spree, he upped it to robberies. At that point, he didn't care if they were home or not."
Investigators said that in one case, Rogers bound a woman and threatened her with a gun. In another case, Rogers beat the victim with a brick before binding her with duct tape and robbing her, police said.
Police said two guns and a large amount of stolen property have already been recovered as part of the investigation.
Detectives said they believe there may be more victims, and they are asking anyone with information about the case to call the Houston Police Department’s robbery division at 713-308-0700.