Highway Patrol: Shooting suspect in custody in Missouri

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MGN

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) – A man suspected of fatally shooting four people at his neighbor’s home in Kansas before killing another man about 170 miles away in rural Missouri was taken into custody early Wednesday morning after an extensive manhunt, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino was captured just after midnight Wednesday, patrol Lt. Paul Reinsch said. Reinsch said he had no other details, but another patrol official told The Kansas City Star that Serrano-Vitorino was found lying on a hill just north of Interstate 70 and that no shots were fired.

“He looked exhausted,” Sgt. James Hedrick told The Star.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that Serrano-Vitorino was a Mexican national who had been deported from the U.S. in April 2004 and illegally re-entered “on an unknown date.” ICE said it would place a detainer on Serrano-Vitorino if he is taken into custody.

Serrano-Vitorino is accused of fatally shooting four men late Monday night at his neighbor’s home in Kansas City, Kansas. He was also wanted in connection with the shooting death of 49-year-old Randy Nordman in Montgomery County, Missouri.

Serrano-Vitorino was jailed in Montgomery County, a jail official said. He referred questions about whether Serrano-Vitorino had an attorney to the sheriff, and calls to the sheriff’s office rang unanswered early Wednesday.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach representatives for the Kansas City, Kansas, police department. The Star reported the area where Serrano-Vitorino was apprehended is near a McDonald’s restaurant and several motels.

The manhunt that included helicopters, police dogs and at least one SWAT team began late Monday after the four men were shot in Kansas City. One of the men 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.

The manhunt shifted early Tuesday, when a truck Serrano-Vitorino was believed to be driving was found abandoned around 7 a.m. along I-70 in central Missouri, about 80 miles west of St. Louis.

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. Reinsch said Tuesday that a witness who called 911 reported seeing a man running from Nordman’s property, launching a manhunt of that area.

The patrol warned that Serrano-Vitorino might have been armed with an AK-47.

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.

Authorities haven’t released the names of the four Kansas victims. Serrano-Vitorino was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in their killings, Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman said.

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