READING, Pa. – Berks County District Attorney John Adams held a news conference Monday morning providing an update on an arrest in a deadly stabbing in Reading.
Police arrested Oliver Paniagua Pena last week and charged him with first-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of Leonardo Mercado Gomez. Police said DNA evidence led to Paniagua Pena’s arrest.
Officials said Monday they haven’t found a motive for the killing, and the two men didn’t have any known problems with each other.
Court documents say the two men worked at the same business.
On May 9 at 2 p.m., Mercado-Gomez, 56, was leaving work at Sun Rich Foods when, without warning, he was stabbed to death on River Road, his family shared following the incident.
Officers from the Reading Police Department previously said they responded to the 200 block of River Road and found Mercado-Gomez, suffering from multiple stab wounds.
EMS transported Mercado-Gomez to Reading Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, officials said.
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