A man suspected of killing five people across Kansas and Missouri was arrested early Wednesday morning after an extensive manhunt, the Missouri Highway Patrol said.
Highway Patrol officials told the Kansas City Star that Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino was arrested in Montgomery County, Missouri. He was found lying on a hill just north of Interstate-70 and no shots were fired, according to The Star.
"He looked exhausted," Sgt. James Hedrick said.
The suspect had a rifle with him, but federal law barred him from legally owning a gun because he is in the country illegally, according to John Ham, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Kansas City.
Online court records show he was charged Wednesday in Montgomery County, Missouri, in the death of 49-year-old Randy Nordman. Nordman was shot Tuesday at his rural home near New Florence, about 70 miles west of St. Louis.
Serrano-Vitorino is also charged with four counts of first-degree murder in Kansas. Authorities there say he gunned down a neighbor and three other men late Monday before fleeing. Investigators haven't discussed a possible motive for the attacks.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement late Tuesday that Serrano-Vitorino was a Mexican national who was held at the Overland Park, Kan. Municipal Court on Sept. 14. The fingerprinting generated an ICE detainer, but the agency was “erroneously issued…to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, instead of the Overland Park Municipal Court.”
The Department of Homeland Security said that Serrano-Vitorino was released from custody without ICE being notified, though they did not elaborate on why. ICE also confirmed that Serrano-Vitorino had been deported back to Mexico in 2004, but had since returned illegally.
It was not clear when he returned to the U.S.
The widespread manhunt for him, which started Monday, included helicopters, police dogs and at least one SWAT team. One of the four men shot that day managed to call police before he died, but it's unclear how the men knew each other or what may have prompted the shooting, Kansas City police officer Thomas Tomasic said.
A truck Serrano-Vitorino was believed to be driving was found about 7 a.m. Tuesday morning alongside Interstate-70 in central Missouri.
About 25 minutes later, sheriff's deputies responded to a shooting about 5 miles away at a Montgomery County home and found the body of 49-year-old Nordman, according to the patrol.
Highway Patrol Lt. Paul Reinsch said a witness who called 911 reported seeing a man running from Nordman's property, launching a manhunt of that area.
Reinsch said investigators weren't aware of any connection between Serrano-Vitorino and Nordman, whose home is near his family's campground and a racetrack for remote-controlled cars.
Police have not released the names of the four victims, but relatives identified three of them to the Kansas City Star as Mike Capps and brothers Clint and Austin Harter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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