The alleged gunman in a November shooting in Newport has been arrested after a monthlong manhunt.
Jaquan Flintroy, 26, of Hartford, Connecticut, was taken into custody Wednesday morning at a home in Westmore, according to the Newport Police Department.
Flintroy faces a charge of attempted murder, as well as federal drug and firearms charges related to the incident Nov. 30.
According to police, Flintroy and three other Hartford men, Michael Alamo and Wilfredo Cerpa, both 23, and Donta Flowers Sr., 44, were parked in a white sedan at the Waterfront Plaza downtown that morning when an argument broke out.
Police said Flintroy shot Flowers in the leg, then raced away in a car driven by Cerpa and with Alamo in the front passenger seat. Police did not say when or how Flintroy left the car.
Cerpa and Alamo, following directions from Flowers, drove to a home to search for his belongings, police allege. There Alamo flashed a gun and blocked the doorway so that those inside couldn’t leave, police said.
U.S. Border Patrol agents found the sedan driving south on Interstate 91 at about 12:05 p.m., near the Barton exit, according to Newport police.
Police said federal agents, state police and Orleans County sheriff’s deputies chased the car until it reached Orleans, and its occupants, Cerpa and Alamo, were arrested. Vermont Fish and Wildlife officers helped in the pursuit.
Alamo was charged with second-degree unlawful restraint; Cerpa is accused of being an accessory to the attempted murder.
Flintroy was being held Wednesday at the Northwest Correctional Facility in St. Albans. He was expected to be arraigned in federal court in Burlington.
