Hate Crime Murder Fugitive Nabbed After 17 Years
Mexico has turned over to the United States a man suspected of involvement in two hate听crime murders more than 17 years ago in California. The case is the first of its kind where civil rights criminal charges were filed against members of a street gang, authorities say.
Merced 鈥淪hadow鈥� Cambero Jr., 38, an alleged former member of the 鈥淎venues鈥� street gang, was arrested in Baja, Mexico, where he was living under a fictitious name, and turned over to U.S. law enforcement agents on Feb. 3.听
Cambero was arraigned Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on federal hate crimes charges related to the racially motivated murders of two black men in Highland Park, a neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles.
鈥淒espite this defendant鈥檚 efforts to avoid prosecution over the course of many years, his appearance in court today demonstrates that law enforcement and my office will be tenacious in pursuing justice against such criminal conduct,鈥� Eileen M. Decker, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said.听
Kenneth Kurry Wilson, 38, was fatally shot in Highland Park on April 18, 1999.听Cambero is one of two 鈥渢riggermen鈥� accused in that homicide. ]
Cambero and other members of the 鈥淎venues鈥� street gang also were accused of fatally shooting Christopher Bowser听on Dec. 11, 2000, while he waited for a bus in Highland Park.
Cambero and听other gang members were indicted in 2004.听The other defendants were apprehended and subsequently convicted.听They each were sentenced in 2006 and 2007 to life in federal prison without parole, while Cambero became a fugitive and fled the United States.
The criminal civil rights conspiracy charge alleges that Cambero participated in a 1997 attack on men playing basketball in a park in Los Angeles.听
The hate听related crime spree by the gang continued, authorities say, when several members ambushed a black听man in 1998 and struck him in the head with a metal object and attacked another black man in a park in 1999.
The gang members also shouted racial slurs at a black woman听in a supermarket and a black man听walking down a street in 1999, the indictment alleges.
鈥淭he victims in this case were targeted simply because of their skin color and because members of the gang wanted to rid their neighborhood of African Americans,鈥� the U.S. attorney said. 鈥淭he heinous conduct with which this defendant is charged has no place in this nation, and the Department of Justice will stand steadfastly against hate crimes like those charged.鈥�
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