Fugitive charged in 2010 fatal shooting in Tacoma alley arrested in Mexico
A fugitive charged with fatally shooting a man in a Tacoma alley 10 years ago was arrested in Mexico, according to the FBI.
Andres Maurice Mendez, 35, was taken into custody Sept. 1 in Queretaro, Mexico.
He has since been booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder for the March 25, 2010, death of Saul Lucas-Alfonso.
Investigators have been looking for Mendez since a warrant was issued five days after the homicide. A federal arrest warrant was issued in May 2017 after he was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
“This arrest should send a message to individuals who choose to commit violent offenses in our communities, you can run but you can’t hide,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Raymond Duda. “In this case, thanks to strong international partnerships, Mr. Mendez learned that lesson first-hand.”
Mendez is charged alongside three others in the fatal shooting.
One co-defendant, 30-year-old Richard Sanchez, has not been arrested.
Santiago Mederos, 29, was arrested this year and arraigned July 31, with a trial scheduled for late September.
Byron Alvarez, 43, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January 2012 and was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison.
Charging papers give this account:
Lucas-Alfonso and two friends were hanging out in an alleyway when the defendants showed up and started ransacking a vehicle.
A teenage boy in the group later said they were trying to get money back from the car’s owner.
The men then walked over and demanded a wallet from one of Lucas-Alfonso’s friends, who refused.
They tried to rifle his pockets, then knocked him to the ground and assaulted him, records say.
The friend was covering his head on the ground when he heard a gunshot.
Somebody in Mendez’s group allegedly fired at the men as they retreated to their vehicle, striking Lucas-Alfonso in the upper back.
Police responded to the alley in the 700 block of Puget Sound Avenue and found Lucas-Alfonso’s friends trying to help him.
He was taken to a local hospital, where he died.
Detectives found a 9 mm shell near a puddle of blood in the alley.
Within days, they identified the Acura Legend that Mendez’s group used to drive away that night and linked it to Alvarez.
Officers pulled the vehicle over and arrested four people inside, including a teenage boy who was present at the time of the homicide.
The teen said his group was running back to the car since they were losing the fight and the shot was fired before Sanchez and Mederos got inside the vehicle.
Once they got inside, they both yelled, “Go, go, go!,” according to court documents.
The group agreed to say nothing about the shooting when they met up the next day, records say.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 11:14 AM.
