Law enforcement officials on Thursday cuffed the gunman they believe shot his 80-year-old stepfather to death in the Bronx last month.
Melvin Java, 46, was tracked down and arrested in Pennsylvania by the U.S. Marshals Service and the New York/New Jersey Regional Task Force for the Sept. 17 execution-style shooting of Marcelino Valerio, his own stepfather, authorities said.
According to police sources, Java allegedly donned a ski mask and wore all black before lying in wait for his 80-year-old stepfather to return home from a party with his wife when he shot him in the head on the corner of West 168 Street and Ogden Avenue just after 1 a.m., mere blocks from where the senior lived. Java then allegedly fled the scene on a bicycle, leaving Valerio for dead.
Sources say that following the heinous crime, Java apparently returned to the family home where he mourned the loss of his stepfather alongside grieving family members. At the time relatives struggled to make sense of the killing, initially believing it to be a random attack.
“The superb police work of the NY/NJ RFTF along with the joint effort of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania further demonstrates our commitment to excellence when it comes to tracking and apprehending fugitives. It is especially satisfying when we can bring closure to Marcelino Valerio’s family by bringing this fugitive back to NYC to face justice. I want to thank the men and women of the NY/NJ RFTF and the USMS in the Eastern District of PA for their dedicated coordination in executing this mission quickly and without incident,” Ralph Sozio, the U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
Java said nothing of his alleged crime when taken out of the 44th Precinct in handcuffs by detectives to face a judge. He is charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.
