Neighbors say more needs to be done to control the homeless

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Exclusive surveillance video given to Eyewitness News showed a man removing a cross from Josue Flores' memorial.

A killer stabbed the 11-year old to death more than 20 times in May. The brutal crime happened near the corner of James and Fulton as Flores walked home from school.

Flowers, candles, and pictures still mark the spot. Many in the community consider the location hallowed ground. Neighbors told abc13 the theft happened Friday night around 8 p.m. Patricia Serna who lives near the memorial said she found the cross upside-down in a nearby storm drain.

"I'm mad. There's no respect," Serna said. "Somebody killed him there."

The wooden cross had a medal Flores won for reading. A Marshall Middle School t-shirt covers most of the cross.

This afternoon, dirt still covered the religious item. Serna said she is in the process of cleaning it up, and neighbors want to cement it back in the ground.

The theft happened as some in the Near Northside community fight to clean up the streets.

Debbie Tessar, along with several other residents, helped gather enough signatures for a so-called "civility" ordinance. If passed, the rule would outlaw sitting or lying on sidewalks during most daylight hours.

"We just want a safe, nice neighborhood, where we can live. We want people to be civil. As far as the vagrants, we have video of people having sex on the sidewalk and people defecting on the sidewalks. We can't have that," Tessar said. "It's just another tool in our tool box for us to dissuade people from camping out in the street basically."

The issue heads to City Hall for a public hearing next month.