A man “most wanted” by the FBI who murdered his pregnant girlfriend in front of family and friends has been arrested.
Philip Policarpio, 39, was detained when he tried to enter the US from Mexico, according to authorities.
The drug-user and convicted felon was placed on the FBI’s top 10 “most wanted” fugitive list on 19 May.
The month before he viciously punched his girlfriend, who was 17 weeks pregnant at the time, while he held a gun in his other hand, and then he shot her in the forehead.
The murder of 32-year-old Lauren Olguin by the 180-pound man had taken place following an argument in front of a gathering of at least half a dozen friends and associates in East Hollywood, according to the FBI.
Authorities had asked members of the public for information and promised a reward of $100,000.
They said Mr Policarpio has a tattoo on his chest that reads: “Only God Can Judge Me”, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department.
At the time of the murder of his girlfriend on 12 April, he was already on parole from a conviction in 2001.
“His pattern is one of violence,” said Special Agent Scott Garriola, a member of the FBI’s Los Angeles Fugitives Task Force, “and he is always armed. He is the definition of a continuing threat to the community.”
According to Ms Olguin’s mother, Jerilyn Olguin, Mr Policarpio had already spent 17 years in prison for shooting another person in the head.
She told NBC that her daughter got into drugs after she graduated from a Catholic high school and they had not seen each other since 2011.
Mr Policarpio was taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection agents at the San Isidro Port of Entry as he was crossing into the US from Tijuana.
The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was created in 1950. Mr Policarpio was the 508th person to be put on that list.
