An illegal alien suspected of a murder and unrelated stabbings in the northeast was arraigned Friday in West Roxbury, Massachusetts following his arrest on Thursday.
Wagner Tejeda-Pena, 24, appeared in municipal court Friday afternoon on two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection to two stabbings in a Boston neighborhood in February, reported the Boston Herald. He is also facing charges of being a fugitive out of Philadelphia, and a murder charge from June. After he fled Philadelphia, multiple warrants were placed for his arrest, and a multi-state search led the to arrest in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
“We got some information from a resident, a confidential tip that they may have possibly seen this individual,” Lawrence Police Chief Roy Vasque told an NBC affiliate after Tejeda-Pena was taken into custody.
According to the Herald, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a detainer on the man. He was arrested during a routine traffic stop by Lawrence authorities.
In February, Tejeda-Pena allegedly attacked his barber shop co-worker in Boston after the illegal alien approached his colleague and accused him of being his biological father. The two men got into an argument outside of a Domino’s pizza franchise and Tejeda-Pena reportedly stabbed his co-worker at 10:20 am ET. Tejeda-Pena then allegedly stabbed another person that same day hours later at his aunt’s house.
Tejada-Pena is the primary suspect in the Philadelphia murder of a 76-year-old man, Loi Nguyen, on the morning of June 21. Nguyen died at approximately 5:44 a.m. ET from a gunshot wound that day.
Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney expressed his exasperation as to why somebody like him would commit such an atrocity or have access to a gun in the first place.
“Someone as inhumane as that should not have access to a gun ever, I mean what type of person would do that to another human being?” Kenney told the press regarding the murder of Nguyen. “I can’t explain to you what is in a person’s brain or doesn’t have a heart that would do that and then give them access to a gun and we have what we have.”
Critics have argued that Kenney’s own policies as well as Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner’s soft-on-crime approach have caused the uptick in Philadelphia violence in recent years. In 2021, there was a record 562 homicides in the city. There have been 292 murders so far in 2022 in Philadelphia.
Kenney has also welcomed illegal aliens flouting federal law to find safe harbor in Philadelphia.
In 2018, Kenney celebrated that The City of Brotherly Love was a sanctuary city after a federal judge ruled that the city could not be prevented from certain federal funding because it declined to cooperate with ICE on certain matters relating to illegal aliens and suspected criminals.
“We are a sanctuary city!” an excited Kenney said while dancing around his office.
A staffer for the Mayor posted the video to social media, saying, “Needless to say, I think @janeslusser and @PhillyMayor are pretty excited about today’s ruling affirming Philadelphia as a Sanctuary City.” Jane Slusser was Kenney’s chief of staff at the time.
Needless to say, I think @janeslusser and @PhillyMayor are pretty excited about today’s ruling affirming Philadelphia as a Sanctuary City. pic.twitter.com/gdnnjZT9ps
— Steve Preston (@StevePrest) June 6, 2018
Tejeda-Pena is being held without bail. It is unknown when he will be extradited to Philadelphia.