This photo provided by the US Marshals Service shows Wu Chen after his arrest by police in Miami Beach, South Florida, Tuesday, November 22, 2022. The person is implicated in the murder of four Asian people at a marijuana farm in Oklahoma, according to authorities. (US Federal Marshals Service via AP)
PA
An Asian man involved in the slayings of four people at a marijuana farm in Oklahoma was captured Tuesday afternoon in South Florida, police announced.
Wu Chen was arrested without incident shortly before 4 p.m. local time by Miami Beach police and taken to the Miami-Dade County Detention Center, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) said. ) in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
The arrest took place “after a license plate reader detected the vehicle he was driving,” it added. The suspect will be charged with manslaughter and use of a firearm to kill and could be extradited to Oklahoma.
OSBI also released a photo provided by federal marshals of the man sitting without shoes on a curb, apparently with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Authorities said the victims — three men and one woman, all Chinese citizens — were shot “executed” on a 10-acre (4-hectare) property west of Hennessey, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northwest of Oklahoma. City. A fifth victim, also a Chinese national, was injured and taken to a hospital in Hoklahoma City.
The victims have not yet been publicly identified and their families have not been informed of what happened “due to a strong language barrier,” police said.
Authorities had previously said they had located a suspect and would not release his name at this time to avoid endangering others.
“The suspect was inside a building at the site for quite some time before the executions began,” the OSBI said in a statement hours earlier Tuesday. “Based on the investigation carried out so far, what happened does not appear to be a fortuitous incident.”
OSBI Capt. Stan Florence said earlier in the day that police believed the suspect knew the victims, who were found dead Sunday night.
“Everyone knew each other,” Florence said. “I don’t know if they are related or co-workers, but we almost certainly believe that all of these people knew each other.”
The Kingfisher County Sheriff’s Office was the first to dispatch deputies to a location following a tip of a hostage situation at the farm and state police assistance was requested, Florence said.
“There is much to clarify around this case,” he added. “It will take us some time to process it.”
“The case is being investigated as a quadruple homicide. The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Hazardous Substance Control also launched an investigation.
The agency has focused on combating the illegal cultivation and trafficking of marijuana destined for the black market in recent years. But agency spokesman Mark Woodward said Tuesday that he was too early to say that was the focus of the current investigation.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
