COLUMBUS, OH—Authorities announced that a third suspect was being held in Ohio’s capital city on charges of murder and the conspiracy to possess a handgun related to a fatal shooting in New Brunswick.
Following an investigation that involved the US Marshalls, 19-year-old city resident Steven Perez was arrested on April 15, 2014 at 2:25 p.m. at a house in Columbus, Ohio.
Perez was charged in the drive-by shooting death of Raheem Fuqua, a 30-year-old man who was shot outside his home on Seaman Street on March 1.
Fuqua was pronounced dead two days later.
Acting Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey announced that same day that police had apprehended Christian Peguero, a suspect who had checked himself into Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, a nearby hospital, with gunshot wounds.
Peguero is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick on $1.5 million bail.
A second suspect, Jonathan Rodriguez, was arrested in Morrisville, Pennsylvania on March 13. Rodriguez is being held in on $1 million bail at the adult corrections center.
Fuqua was found on his front steps of his home armed with a handgun, but it appeared that the weapon had not been fired.
Also wounded in the shooting was an innocent bystander, identified as a 34-year-old city resident. He was treated at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for a gunshot wound to the left arm and released.
Bail for Perez has been set at $2 million. He remains in custody and is awaiting extradition from Ohio.
“Investigators worked diligently to identify suspects and then trace them.” said Carey, who also thanked the US Marshalls.
The investigation is active and is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Gregus of the New Brunswick Police Department at (732) 745-4217, or Investigator Temple of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-3373.
