Robbers Attack Migrant Camp; 1 Dead

Bandits brutally attacked a migrant workers’ camp in Escondido Sunday, killing one man and beating and robbing several others, police said.

Pedro Ramirez, 57, from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, was dead at the scene from multiple stab wounds, according to authorities.

Three others, including Ramirez’s son, Hermilindo Ramirez, 26, were treated and released from Palomar Hospital on Sunday for minor injuries, Escondido Police Lt. Earl Callander said.

A group of men armed with guns and knives raided the camp about 1:50 a.m. Sunday, Callander said. The workers were sleeping in two storage sheds at the Henry Avocado Co. ranch in the 2300 block of Lincoln Way when the attack occurred.

“They busted the door down and started hitting everybody,” said Lupe Hernandez, a supervisor at the avocado packaging company where the migrants worked. “One of the men told me he was hit in the head with the butt of a rifle.”

Robbery was the motive for the attack, Callander said. The assailants, believed to number eight to 10 Latino males, demanded money and “in that process, Ramirez got stabbed,” Callander said.

Warren Henry, one of the owners of the avocado company, said Ramirez was killed for no apparent reason.

The workers “were all submitting,” Henry said. “There didn’t seem to be any reason to kill the guy.”

A security guard patrols the property and lives about 70 feet from where the attack occurred, Henry said. “We thought that would give us pretty good protection,” Henry said, adding that the guard was elsewhere during the raid.

The assailants took about $1,500 in payroll checks and at least $300 in cash, Henry said.

The workers’ hands were bound, but Hermilindo Ramirez escaped to summon help, Hernandez said. The assailants fled toward nearby groves, Hernandez said.

Police had no suspects, Callander said.