After 15 years on the run, a Broward murder suspect was found during a traffic stop
A deputy in Florida’s Panhandle pulled over a Nissan Altima that crossed double yellow lines. The routine traffic stop led to the arrest of a suspect in a 2007 South Florida murder.
On Sunday, a Walton County Sheriff’s Office deputy pulled over Jose Wilson Padilla-Padilla, who was wanted for first-degree murder under the alias Wilson “El Tigre” Padilla-Diaz.
Padilla-Padilla was then arrested and booked into the Walton County Jail. He has yet to be extradited to Broward as of Tuesday evening.
Padilla-Padilla’s wife told deputies that they met in Mexico 12 years ago and had been living in the Panhandle for less than a year.
#FLPD #ArrestAlert: Last night, @WCSOFL arrested a man known as “El Tigre” who was wanted for a 2007 #FortLauderdale murder.
Seems he fled the country following the incident but we’re grateful to now have closure for the victim’s family. @FTLCityNews https://t.co/SYeIQnU3bQ— Fort Lauderdale Police (@ftlauderdalepd) February 28, 2023
A man nicknamed “El Tigre” was the suspected triggerman in the Oct. 20, 2007 slaying of Wilson Zelaya, 28, who was shot inside the International Sports Bar at 3927 SW 16th St. in Fort Lauderdale, according to Miami Herald archives.
Zelaya was playing video games in the back corner of the bar when “El Tigre,” who witnesses later identified as Padilla-Padilla, confronted him and shot him multiple times, according to Fort Lauderdale police reports.
Witnesses told police that before his death, Zelaya was announcing that he wanted to kill Padilla-Padilla’s brother, “Joe,” for starting a relationship with his girlfriend.
According to police reports: As tension bubbled, Zelaya armed himself with Corona beer bottles. That’s when “El Tigre” fired multiple shots — and “Joe” kicked the victim twice. The duo then fled the bar.
In 2021, fingerprints provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) turned out to be a match to Padilla-Padilla, according to police reports. The investigation also found that “El Tigre” had applied for a U.S. visa with a Honduran passport and had repeatedly entered the country, being arrested and deported each time.
Padilla-Padilla remained undetected by immigration officers, police reports say, because he provided different variations of his name each time he was detained.
