A suspected illegal immigrant suspected of shooting dead a California police officer has been arrested following a large-scale manhunt lasting two days.
Gustavo Perez Arriaga is accused of killing 33-year-old Ronil Singh in the town of Newman early on Wednesday.
He had gang links and was trying to flee to Mexico, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said.
President Trump has cited the killing as a justification for his proposed wall on the border with Mexico.
Mr Singh was born in Fiji but migrated to the US to become a police officer. He had a five-month-old son.
Stanislaus Sheriff
✔@StanSheriff
Corporal Ronil Singh
Newman Police Department, CA
EOW: December 26, 2018
Mr Arriaga was arrested in the city of Bakersfield.
Two others – Gustavo Arriaga’s brother Adrian Virgen and his work colleague Erik Razo Quiroz – were also detained for allegedly acting as accomplices.
The US government has partially shut down amid an impasse over funding for the wall.
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are either on unpaid leave or continue to work but do not know when they will be paid.
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
There is right now a full scale manhunt going on in California for an illegal immigrant accused of shooting and killing a police officer during a traffic stop. Time to get tough on Border Security. Build the Wall!
Earlier Mr Trump threatened to close the border with Mexico entirely if funding was not forthcoming.
“Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border,” he said.
He wants $5bn (£4bn) to cover the cost of the wall but Democrats and some within Mr Trump’s own party insist they will not approve it.
Source: bbc.co.uk
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