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A man who has evaded custody for over two decades after allegedly murdering a man has been tracked down and arrested in Mexico.
Jose Armando Mejia has been on the run since 2002 after police accused him of shooting three people, including a 6-year-old boy, when he opened fire at a house after an attempted drug deal in San Antonio, Texas.
Out of the three victims, one man named Lee Roy Campos died from his injuries at the scene.
The shooting occurred on 26 April 2002 in the 900 block of Angela on the city’s West Side, when Mr Mejia and two other men went over to Campos’ home for a drug deal, local outlets say police have detailed.
Mr Mejia allegedly grew impatient while waiting for the narcotics and left, but later that night, police say, he came back, barged in and opened fire.
Campos was shot in the head, while the two others, including the young boy, were injured in the gunfire.
The San Antonio Police Department reportedly said multiple people identified Mr Mejia as the shooter at the time, and a warrant put out for his arrest prevented the case from going cold for 22 years.
Police say that Mr Mejia had been on the run for all that time, until 4 May 2024, when the suspect was tracked down in the small city of Nava in Coahuila, Mexico.
That discovery came after the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, along with the US Marshals Service, adopted the case in March 2024, with two arrest warrants for Mr Mejia, the SAPD said. During its investigation, the Marshals received information on Mr Mejia’s whereabouts and movements in Mexico.
The task force then worked with Mexican law enforcement to find the fugitive, and he was ultimately arrested after evading justice for decades.
After his arrest, he was turned over to US Customs and Border Protection and is currently being extradited to Bexar County.
