Nightclub shooting suspect found in Mexico

Shots killed a man, injured 2 in Chelsea

The suspect in a January shooting inside a Chelsea nightclub that killed one man and wounded two others was arrested Thursday in Mexico City, where he had been tracked by Chelsea, state, and federal investigators, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said yesterday.

Jesse Camacho allegedly got into an argument inside King Arthur's Lounge on Jan. 25, and then pulled out a handgun and fired at least seven rounds inside the nightclub on Beacham Street in an industrial section of Chelsea.

Jeff Santiago, a 28-year-old patron and Everett resident, was struck in the heart and lungs and fatally wounded. A 41-year-old Charlestown man who was working at the club and a 29-year-old friend of Santiago's were also wounded, authorities said.

In a statement released following a news conference, Conley said that law enforcement authorities traced Camacho first to Los Angeles, where he was born, and then to Mexico and Mexico City. He was living in Chelsea at the time of the shooting. On Thursday night, Camacho was arrested as he got off a bus in Mexico City, Conley said.

"For anyone who thinks they can take a life and simply run away, take note: Whoever you are, wherever you run, whatever you do to evade the law, we will find you," Conley said in the statement. "And when we do, we will hold you to account."

Conley said he is working with the federal government and Mexican authorities to bring Camacho back to Suffolk County so he can be tried on first-degree murder and other charges.

The shooting was "an act that could be called madness if it weren't committed so coldly and so deliberately," he said.

Camacho was 19 at the time of the shooting and had been involved in other acts of gun-related violence.

He admitted to committing a drive-by shooting on Everett Avenue in Chelsea in 2005, when he targeted three teenagers. No one was injured.

In January 2006, he pleaded guilty in Boston Juvenile Court to three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm.

He was ordered into the custody of the Department of Youth Services until his 18th birthday, which was in 2006.

Conley credited prosecutors, Chelsea and State Police, and the US Marshal's Service for persisting in the pursuit of Camacho.

The bar has a notorious past. On July 23, 1982, a brawl broke out after an argument between Alfred J. Mattuchio and John McLeod, an off-duty Everett police officer. The officer left the lounge, then returned with several other police officers, armed with nightsticks, baseball bats, and tire irons. They attacked a dozen patrons and employees, and Vincent J. Bordonaro was beaten to death.

Four Everett officers were indicted in the death. One was acquitted; McLeod and another former officer are serving life sentences for second-degree murder; and the fourth was released after serving several years for manslaughter.

John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.