By Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times
It started as a traffic violation. But when police officers stopped Juan P. De La Cruz at an intersection in the Rockaways last night, the red light that they said he ignored was the least of his problems.
The officers pulled over Mr. De La Cruz, 30, of Rockaway Park, at 8:40 p.m. He had run a red light in his 1997 Ford at Beach Channel Drive and Arverne Boulevard, a Police Department spokesman said. But when the officers ran a background check on Mr. De La Cruz they found that he was wanted as a murder suspect in Wake County, N.C.
“He went through a steady red,” the spokesman said. “They stopped him and did a check. It comes over the computer that he was wanted for homicide.”
The murder in question was a 1999 shooting in a bar called Adam’s Place, located just outside the town of Fuquay-Varina, N.C., Phyllis Stephens, the public information director for the Wake County sheriff’s office, said. The victim, Daniel Vargas Garcia, was 34.
Authorities in North Carolina issued a warrant for Mr. De La Cruz’s arrest on Oct. 14 of that year, but he was not found. He has been listed in a national crime database ever since, Ms. Stephens said. When the New York police officers stopped him, his name popped up in that database.
It was unclear exactly how authorities would handle Mr. De La Cruz’s case. Ms. Stephens said she expected he would be extradited to North Carolina, and said the Wake County Sheriff’s Office would prepare the paperwork for the transfer.