Newtown borough and township police officers captured a man wanted for a homicide in Bensalem Township on Saturday evening.
Officers from the Newtown departments spotted a Ford van connected to a homicide in Bensalem Township in the 600 block of Newtown-Yardley Road in front of the Newtown Cemetery around 5:40 p.m., police said.
According to statements, officers pulled the van over and arrested Abel Mendoza-Ramirez, 31.
“The person was taken into custody safely with no injuries,” Newtown Township police said.
Bensalem Township police stated that Mendoza-Ramirez was wanted for shooting and killing Jose Miguel Tenorio-Ruiz, 40, in the area of building 7 in Bucks Meadows Apartments on Knights Road.
Police and Bensalem Township EMS provided life-saving measures to Tenorio-Ruiz and he was rushed to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
At the shooting scene, it was determined that Mendoza-Ramirez shot Tenorio-Ruiz and the search began, police said.
Dispatchers broadcast the suspect and vehicle information to surrounding police departments and put it in a national database, which led to the wanted man being found in the Newtown area.
According to Bensalem Township authorities: ‘Police learned the suspect and the victim had a minor physical altercation just before the shooting. Following the altercation, it was reported that Abel Mendoza-Ramirez went to his vehicle, returned with a semi-automatic handgun in his waistband, and approached the victim. The two exchanged words again. Abel Mendoza-Ramirez pulled the gun from his waistband and fired two rounds into the ground near the victim. When the victim attempted to take the gun from him, Mendoza-Ramirez fired the gun, striking Tenorio-Ruiz in the torso. The shooter entered his Ford van and fled from the scene.”
Bensalem Township police thanked Newtown police for their assistance for locating a “dangerous criminal.”
Abel Mendoza-Ramirez was charged with criminal homicide, murder in the first degree, murder in the third degree, and possession of an instrument of crime. He was preliminarily arraigned by District Judge Joseph Falcone and remanded to the Bucks County Correctional Facility without bail.
