Murder suspect tracked down in New York

Law enforcement officials in New York City Friday arrested the man wanted for a November murder in North Philadelphia, four days after a store clerk who reportedly spoke to police about that slaying was killed.

FBI agents and NYPD detectives arrested Jorge Aldea, 23, who was wanted for the Nov. 25 murder of Luis Chevere, 22, in North Philadelphia, police said.

Chevere was shot in the head on Westmoreland Street near Hancock, a block away from the Caribe Mini Market on Mutter Street near Westmoreland, where Rosemary Fernandez Rivera, 33, was executed Monday night.

Rivera, who reportedly spoke to police about Chevere's murder, was shot four times at point blank range while working at the store.The shooter walked into the store and opened fire on her without turning his attention to two other employees, or taking any cash or merchandise.

Law-enforcement sources said it was too soon to comment on any possible links between the murders, but did confirm that Rivera had had a loud confrontation with an unknown man a few days before her death and that the FBI was involved in the investigation.

An angry friend on Tuesday said that Rivera - who was known for trying to push drug activity away from her store - didn't know anything about Chevere's murder and blamed police for her death.

"They picked her up three, four times. Everybody saw," said Luis Sanabria, who lives next door to the store. "They set her up.

She was killed on the same day the Daily News ran a photo of Aldea in the paper's "Week's Most Wanted" section.

Agents in the FBI's New York City field office confirmed that Aldea, 23, was arrested without incident in the Bronx last night.

Cops and FBI agents found the man hiding in the bathroom of an apartment, said Peter Donald, an FBI spokesman. It wasn't immediately known how he was tracked to the apartment and what his connections to New York are.

FBI field offices in Philadelphia and New York worked with the Philadelphia Police Fugitive Task Force and the New York Police Department, police said.

Aldea's criminal record - which includes 13 arrests - dates back to 2005, when he was arrested for attempted murder, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, among others, according to court documents.

Those charges were dropped less than a month after he turned 16.

He was arrested last February for an aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and weapons violations. However, the charges were dropped when witnesses didn't show up in court to testify against him.