The Bronx gunman wanted for killing an ex-con who had served time for pimping out girls returned to the crime scene two days later and was busted, police said Wednesday.
Jonathan Velazquez, 42, allegedly killed Luis Cano, 29, Sunday night on Lafayette Ave. near Hunts Point Ave. in Hunts Point.
Cano, struck in the chest, was rushed by medics to Lincoln Hospital but could not be saved.
Velasquez fled, police said, but was busted Tuesday afternoon when he walked past the crime scene as detectives were conducting interviews and looking at surveillance video.
Detectives recognized him, then caught up to him two blocks away on Barretto St. and made the arrest.
Velazquez, who has no prior arrests, was charged with murder, gun possession and reckless endangerment.
Cano was conditionally released by Parole in November 2024 after serving 20 months in state prison.
He had been sentenced to up to five years after being convicted of sex trafficking of a child in the Bronx.
The motive for the murder is not yet clear, but according to a source, is not connected to the sex-trafficking case.
Cano was among nine members of the Hunts Point Family Bloods who made headlines in 2020 when they were indicted for pimping girls and young women out of motels in the Bronx and other parts of the city.
The gang members preyed on girls and women who were poor and uneducated with few job prospects and forced them into prostitution, authorities said at the time.
After his release, he was arrested last October in the Bronx for obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest, and was released without bail.
Cano was thenarrested in May in the Bronx for robbery, menacing and gun possession. He was initially ordered held on $200,000 bond but was later granted release without bail, according to public records.