SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A suspected drunk driver accused of fatally shooting the California police officer who pulled him over was captured Friday as he tried to flee back to Mexico, where he lived before illegally crossing into the U.S., authorities said.
The sheriff whose agency was leading the investigation blamed California’s sanctuary law for preventing local authorities from reporting Perez Arriaga to federal immigration officials for previous arrests. If the suspect had been deported, he said, Cpl. Ronil Singh of the tiny Newman Police Department would still be alive.
“We can’t ignore the fact that this could have been preventable,” Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said, asking why the state was “providing sanctuary for criminals (and) gang members. It’s a conversation we need to have.”
This Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2018 image from a surveillance camera video and provided by the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department shows a suspect police are searching for in connection to the fatal shooting of an officer during a traffic stop in Northern California. (Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department via AP)Gustavo Perez Arriaga was arrested near Bakersfield, about 200 miles southeast of the scene of the shooting. He crossed the border in Arizona several years ago and had worked a variety of jobs as a laborer, including at several dairies. He also had two prior arrests for driving while intoxicated, Christianson said.
The 33-year-old Mexico native had gang affiliations and multiple Facebook pages with different names, the sheriff said.