PHOENIX (AZ Family) — Two Valley brothers will spend eight and a half years behind bars for busting street vendors in downtown Phoenix.

Dayron Eriberto Perez Gonzalez and his younger brother Kevin Carlos Perez Gonzalez pulled out guns on at least five occasions in a single month and stole hundreds of dollars.

Prosecutors believe street vendors have become prime targets for robbery and assault because of their fear of reporting crimes.

Community advocates are encouraging anyone who experienced this to come forward to receive some semblance of justice.

“The focus, I think, for a lot of these criminals is on hard cash business, where it’s an opportunistic thing,” said Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Hutcheson, the prosecutor on the case.

According to court documents, the Gonzalez brothers would approach the street vendors in a non-threatening manner.

“They either order something or ask for change. That would cause the seller to change their focus to prepare something or get something, and generally that’s when the gun came out,” Hutcheson said.

The two brothers did the same thing at least five times, committing at least four robberies in a span of four days.

“Two of them were the same victim, a juvenile,” Maricopa County District Attorney Rachel Mitchell said.

Video of the arrests shows both suspects being chased and detained by multiple undercover officers.

Court documents say police also found two handguns in their car.

“They shouldn’t have had firearms and illegally possessed them, and they certainly used them to commit all these armed robberies,” Hutcheson said.

Jose Guzman is the director of a nonprofit organization for victims of crime, and he says many affected people find it difficult to contact the police for a number of reasons.

“This is their only job because they are undocumented,” he said. “They think they report, catch you, send them back to Mexico. They have no chance of payment.”

Gabriel Gonzalez was not a victim of these suspects, but he was robbed a few times during his 21 years as a street vendor.

“It was about six, at least I remember. But on second thought, it was probably more,” he said.

He has only filed a report once, but says it takes people standing up to bring about real change and safety for others.

“I didn’t see how reporting could help the community get the thugs out of the neighborhood,” he said.

In many of these reported cases, victims provided details about the suspects and their cars, which prosecutors say helped them and police in the case.

Guzman works closely with victims, law enforcement and Silent Witness.

He is asking that anyone who has been a victim contact him through his organization, Parents and Relatives of Crime Victims.

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