2 Charged in German Tourist’s Slaying in Miami : Crime: Woman was killed during a robbery as her children and mother watched. Both suspects were already in custody on unrelated robbery counts.

Six days after the brutal killing of a German tourist sent a wave of revulsion through Miami and caused at least two European governments, Germany and Britain, to caution their citizens about traveling here, police Thursday announced the arrests of two men charged with killing the visitor during a robbery.

But as relieved as community leaders were to get a break in the case, which has become an international sensation, local civic and police officials vowed that the war on thugs who prey on visitors has just begun.

“This Police Department is committed to weeding out the violent offenders and making this community safe for visitors and for you,” said Miami Police Chief Calvin Ross, who in the last few days has spoken emotionally of how the savage attack on Barbara Jensen Meller affected him personally.

Meller, a 39-year-old physical therapist, arrived Friday in Miami from her home in Berlin, accompanied by her two young children and her mother. After renting a red Ford Taurus from Alamo Rent-A-Car, she headed for a Miami Beach hotel. She apparently became lost in an inner-city neighborhood, where her car was rear-ended by two men in another car. When Meller got out to inspect the damage, she was beaten and run over as her children and mother looked on.

Two suspects who were already in custody on unrelated robbery charges, were charged with first-degree murder and strong-arm robbery. They are Anthony Williams, 18, and Leroy Rogers, 23, Miami police said.

Police said that both men have criminal records and that Williams was on probation for armed robbery. If convicted, each could receive the death penalty.

Meller’s husband, Christian Jensen, who arrived here last weekend to care for the children, praised police for their response to his wife’s murder, saying: “We have seen the very best and the very worst of your community.”

But for the third consecutive day, local, state and federal police agencies met at City Hall in a “crime summit” to discuss ways of ensuring visitors’ safety and reversing the tide of negative publicity that could have a daunting effect on the state’s No. 1 industry, tourism. Last year, out-of-state visitors pumped more than $30 billion into Florida’s economy.

Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles already has ordered the immediate removal of tell-tale license tags that identify all rental cars in Dade County. The measure was suggested during a similar rash of attacks in 1991. New “tourist friendly” road signs leading away from Miami International Airport are going up, and free maps and brochures offering advice to tourists--such as not to stop if your car is bumped from behind--are being made available.

Statistics gathered from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement indicate that robberies of out-of-state visitors to Greater Miami have more than doubled in the last four years. The Miami Herald reported Thursday that, from 1989 to 1992, the number of robbery victims had increased by 124.5%.

Many were “smash-and-grab” robberies, in which tourists leaving the airport in easily identified rental cars are followed by thieves who wait for any opportunity--a stoplight, a wrong turn, a pause to look at a map--to put a rock through the window. The cars’ license tags contain the letters Y or Z.

One suggestion that has come from the “crime summit” discussion this week is coating the windows of rental cars with a protective substance that would make them harder to break. Car company representatives objected, saying that would cost millions.

Meller was the third German visitor to Florida and the sixth tourist slain in the state in the past year.