A Mexican man wanted for killing seven people, including women and children, in his native country nearly 25 years ago has been apprehended in California and deported south of the border, immigration officials said.
Heriberto Gomez Galicia, aka Ramiro Gomez Lopez, 62, admitted to using four different aliases during this time on the run and was captured in November after he tried to use his dead brother’s name to register a vehicle in California.
Members of the fugitive task force with the U.S. Marshals trailed Gomez after getting the tip and then arrested him at his Watsonville home, south of San Jose.
He was turned over to Mexican officials Wednesday at a border crossing in San Diego.
“According to Mexican authorities, the victims of the Oct. 9, 1991, massacre were members of a local family with whom Gomez and his two brothers had feuded,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement. “The warrant alleges that Gomez, along with his two brothers, stalked the family’s patriarch as he tended his livestock. When the father fled, the suspects allegedly sought out other members of the family and carried out the attack.”
An 8 year old was killed, while a 3 year old was seriously wounded in the massacre, authorities said.
The alleged mass murderer and his brothers headed north of the border to California, where they originally set up in Oxnard, southern California.
His two brothers were apprehended there in July 1994, but Gomez remained elusive. In the intervening 20 years, he told the feds he used different aliases to find work and obtain identifications, as well as a California benefit card, called Medi-Cal.
“For the victims in this case, justice has been a long time coming, but they can take consolation in the fact that the alleged assailant is now being held accountable,” said Timothy Aitken, field office director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team in San Francisco. “This fugitive’s arrest and repatriation are the direct result of the ongoing cooperation between U.S. law enforcement and our Mexican counterparts. Violent criminals who commit reprehensible crimes and believe they can evade justice by fleeing to the U.S. should be on notice — they will find no refuge here.”
sgoldstein@nydailynews.com