How they caught serial robbers of armored vehicles in Texas

In 2015, Houston began systematically and professionally to rob and collect collectors. It took two years to search for criminals, and for this the FBI had to set up a trap for them, writes TJournal.

Фото: Depositphotos

36-year-old Redrick Battiste looked like an ordinary black man of middle age: tall, thin and always with a slight smile in the photographs. He regularly visited his elderly parents, lived with two dogs, and devoted almost all his free time to his family — the girl Bucha Okokh and two children.

It was hard to believe that Batista was capable of a crime. However, a year after the start of the brutal robbery and murder of collectors in Houston, the police and the FBI established surveillance of the American. Intelligence agencies believed that it was he who led the group of armed professionals who managed to rob armored cars. The history of the activities of intruders and the details of their capture told the magazine Texas Monthly.

Without the right to surrender

12 February 2015 of the year to the building of a shopping center in Houston pulled up an armored van of the company Brinks - it supplies vehicles for the transport of valuables and cash, working in Russia as well. Inside the building on the first floor was a branch of a banking company. Capital One - two employees Brinks, Alvin Kinn (Alvin Kinn) and Berta Boone (Bertha Boone)They were just about to take money from there and go on.

After 25 minutes, Kinn, in a bulletproof vest and with a pistol in a thigh holster, rolled out a trolley with money from the basement of the bank. At this moment, three masked men appeared from somewhere: the collector shouted to them, but they did not answer and shot him in the head with a rifle. The man died instantly.

The companion of the deceased immediately turned on the siren of the van, pulled the pistol from its holster and fired nine times in the direction of the attackers, but missed. Having dispersed, the criminals "pressed" the woman with dense fire from rifles, quickly put the bank's money in a bag and disappeared on white Fappearing around the corner.

A little later, FBI agents found a car abandoned in another part of the city and concluded that the criminals had changed vehicles and were divided. Viewing the surveillance camera records did nothing, but a casual witness to the shootout noticed that one of the robbers was a black man without a mask. This is all that the special services were able to achieve - even the 100 reward of thousands of dollars, which the police had appointed, did not help. The criminals have disappeared.

According to research data, annually in the USA they make attacks from 25 to 35 on armored vehicles carrying valuable items or money. During this same time, about 4000 banks are being robbed in the country. For such a discrepancy, there is a simple explanation: attacking a bank building is much easier than attacking an armored car with a guard. Managers are taught to disagree with the criminals and, above all, to worry about the safety of people. At the same time, collectors have the right to shoot to kill if they suspect a threat. “This is a standard practice, they will not wait for the robber to shoot first,” says security guard Jim McGuffie.

But a big risk is rewarded with a large reward: bank robbers at best will have time to make several thousand dollars before the police arrive, but collectors carry with them much larger sums neatly packed in bags. Often used two ways for such raids: robbers block the path of an armored car and blow up the rear doors of the van, behind which there is money, or waiting for a good moment and attack the collector with bags.

However, the case in Houston was unique - for the first time since 2002, the local collector was killed during the performance, although he did not even have time to pick up a weapon or surrender. After this raid in 2015, two more cases of attacks on an armored vehicle occurred: in one, two armed masked robbers worked who, under the threat of execution, took the money from the guards. Another episode was more sophisticated.

The attacks continue

In November, 2015, a van of collectors, drove up to the station Bank of America in northern Houston. The collector got out of the car, took the money from the office and went back towards the transport when a black man in a bullet-proof vest stepped out of a parked car and opened fire from a semi-automatic rifle.

A shot from a surveillance camera recording during an attack on Bank of America. The person on the record is one of the shooters, November 2015 of the year. Photo: FBI

Despite the injuries, the collector managed to get to the car and take refuge in the cab. Realizing that it was too risky to storm an armored van, the assailant threw the original vehicle and fled in a jeep parked on another part of the street.

The FBI agents who arrived at the scene were again left with nothing - there was no evidence, and there were no witnesses at the crime scene. In the hope of at least some kind of clue, the authorities assigned a reward of 15 thousand dollars for any information that would lead to the arrest of the suspect. The attempt was in vain - none of the callers on the hotline did not say anything useful.

The next attack took place five months later in exactly the same way, but this time everything worked out - the shooter figured out the collectors, and the unknown one on the blue Toyota took the bags where there was at least 120 thousand dollars. The car brand attracted the attention of the investigators, as it was fixed in the parking lot of the hotel near three hours before the exchange of fire. In addition, an unknown person contacted the FBI, who promised to disclose information about the attackers not for 15 thousands, but for 3,5 thousands of dollars in cash. With no alternatives, the agents agreed.

Family man, businessman, robber

The informant, who allegedly once communicated with the raiders, called the name of their leader - entrepreneur Redrik Battiste. He was born in the family of a bus driver and a computer salon worker, attended private schools and regularly attended church. Despite relatively prosperous origins and upbringing, in 1996, 17-year-old Batista was imprisoned for illegally carrying weapons, and the situation worsened over the following years: he was arrested for drug possession, driving while drunk and fighting.

Personal life, too, did not develop - from the first lover, Batista had a son, but he died in infancy due to medical complications. Later, from a new girl, an American had a daughter, who in 2018 was a little less than 20 years old. With her, the man continued to maintain contact despite a quarrel with her mother.

Redrick Batista while serving time. Photo of Houston Police

Friends and colleagues of Batista spoke positively about him, noting his polite and calm nature. Even the lawyer of the American, who repeatedly defended him in court, spoke of the suspect as a person who was unable to commit a really serious crime. In the summer of 2014, the new sweetheart Batista, Buchi Okoh, became pregnant, and later gave birth to a daughter Imani.

The entrepreneur moved the family to a new home, which cost him almost 150 thousands of dollars. Despite this, he constantly promised his wife to buy a new home in the future, where there would be enough space for the whole family. As Okokh recalls, the spouse never looked nervous or thoughtful. As if he always knew how to act in order to fulfill his goals. “He wanted to build his life correctly, start a family, which we did. We started a family and made sure our children were fine, ”the girl explains.

When the security services studied Batista’s criminal biography, they were puzzled that he hadn’t been attracted for more than seven years, as if he had long left the criminal past behind. At home, the American always had an ideal order: no dust, dirt, or crumbs, as if the maid were keeping order. However, an FBI informant continued to insist on Batista’s fault, and the court allowed agents to begin spying on the alleged burglar of collectors.

At the same time, the security services discovered a white Toyotawhich stood in the parking lot a few kilometers from the house of Battiste. A check showed that the car was stolen, and a hole was cut out on the back door - big enough to push an automatic rifle with a sight into it. The agents put a beacon on the car and a few days later they found out that someone had parked it somewhere else. Was it Batista? Investigators could not say for sure. Moreover, they still have not found evidence proving the involvement of an American in armed raids. The solution was only one thing - you need to catch the attackers right at the crime scene.

Trap for shooters

Three months — FBI agents watched Batista for as long as he drove into the city, and studied his house with the help of hidden surveillance cameras. American life seemed routine, except for one thing - sometimes he met 37-year-old Nelson Polk and his uncle, 46-year-old Mark Hill. Both had a long list of crimes committed behind their backs and looked like good partners for raids on collectors.

However, like Batista, men behaved like law-abiding citizens with family and business. Soon the FBI achieved the installation of surveillance and for them, but at first it did not give noticeable results. Everything has changed on November 21 2016, when Hill came to the bank building Amegy Bank in northern Houston. He stayed there for three hours and drove away, after which the Batiste car stopped near the establishment.

The next day, the situation repeated itself: presumably, the angle of view of the suspects just made it possible to track the movement of collectors. After the "duty" Hill and Batista separately arrived at the supermarket, where they met with the Regiment. After a brief conversation, the Americans drove around several main streets in that part of the city, as if memorizing the route, and then dispersed in different directions.

The FBI agents were sure that the suspects would again launch an attack again. Investigators convinced the court to wiretap Batista and only confirmed their fears: the group was really preparing for something. It was not so easy to understand what exactly it was because the Americans communicated with code phrases without precise details of the plan. A new impetus to the investigation occurred on December 1 2016, when Batiste returned the brand car from the rental Cherokee.

The next day, the investigators rented the same car and found that the American had made a spare ignition key. In addition, the agents found the hidden GPS device, and then everything became clear - with the help of his key and the navigator, Batista could follow the movement of the car and steal it at the right moment.

The FBI technicians immediately set to work: they installed a microphone in the car, a surveillance camera and a tracking device with the function of remotely turning off the motor. The trick worked - a few days later, Batista actually tracked Cherokeewho was used by the new driver, waited for an opportunity and hijacked the car with his key. Two days later, the suspect drove into a car repair shop and toned car windows, and the next day he parked it near the office. Amegy Bank.

7 December 2016, Batista, phoned his wife and said that he loved her. After that, he contacted his old friend and also said that he loved and appreciated him. By ten in the morning he drove up to the bank and took a sniper position, from where a good view of the entrance to the building was opened. Two companions were sitting in the car, preparing to pick up the bag from the dead collector, and two others were nearby and made sure that there were no policemen nearby.

K 11: 00 one of the assistants reported the approach of an armored van. On a hidden surveillance camera in Cherokee one can see how Batiste took a few breaths to calm down, and then he looked out into the street and with surprise said: “What the fuck is this ?!”. At that moment, SWAT men approached the car of his accomplices.

Stunned by Batista, he tried to leave, but the FBI technicians remotely shut off the car's engine. Then, without saying a word, the man came out, aimed the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the direction of the special forces and fired at least one shot. The police responded with fire and hit the assailant in the leg and chest - having fallen, Batista took a few more breaths and died. Five accomplices of the murdered, including Hill and Polk, were soon surrounded and detained.

The FBI agents never disclosed whether they found weapons or stolen money in the house of the head of the group. None of the gang members admitted to participating in the raids - they are under arrest, but the court in their cases has not yet been appointed. According to the head of the Houston Police Department, it is Batista and his teammates who are responsible for attacks on collectors that took place about two years - since February 2015. Batista's criminal motives remain unknown - it is unclear why an entrepreneur with a prosperous business needed to create a group.

Regardless of the raids committed by the American, his parents and wife call him a non-conflict person and still do not believe what happened. Only relatives and a few close friends attended the shooter's funeral. “No one said a bad word about him that day. He probably wasn’t that bad,” the shooter’s mother says, as if convincing herself of what she said. “He wasn't that bad.”

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