HOUSTON – A Hurricane Katrina evacuee who police called one of the Houston area's "most wanted killers," has been arrested in Louisiana on charges of killing a fellow evacuee in a robbery, police said Monday.
Ricardo Irvin, 18, told the Houston officers who picked him up from authorities in New Iberia, La., that "he got tired of running from the law" and admitted killing fellow evacuee Gregory Sartain, 19, and wounding another man, police spokesman Alvin Wright said.
Police said Irvin and Richard Foster, 17, robbed the two men of money they had received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A tip led to Irvin's arrest in Baton Rouge, La., on June 6. He was transferred to New Iberia, where he also is charged in a murder, before being turned over to Houston officers, authorities said.
Foster was arrested in New Orleans on May 15. The men could face the death penalty if convicted of the Houston murder.
Katrina evacuees have been involved in more than two dozen killings, either as suspects or victims, since about 150,000 Louisiana evacuees arrived last September, police said. FBI crime data released Monday showed a 23 percent spike in murders in Houston in the past year.
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