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Fugitives wanted in Maryland slaying arrested in Houston
By JENNIFER LEAHY
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 13, 2008, 8:34PM

Two suspected MS 13 gang members accused of fatally shooting a 14-year-old student on a Maryland public bus were arrested Thursday on a Metro bus in Houston.

Gilmar Leonardo Romero, 20, is charged with first degree murder in the Nov. 1 shooting death of Tai Lam at a Maryland bus stop.
Mario Ernesto Milan-Canales, 30, is charged as an accessory after the fact.

Milan-Canales was present at the time of the shooting and also allegedly attempted to destroy evidence, said Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department Lt. Paul Starkes.

The men had been under surveillance by members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force who saw them board the bus and executed a traffic stop about 10 a.m.

They were arrested without incident.
One suspect was wearing the same Yankees baseball hat he wore in a photo provided to the task force by Maryland officials, authorities said.
Romero and Milan-Canales are both believed to be MS 13 gang members, police said.

The man believed to be the gunman in the incident, 20-year-old Hector Mauricio Hernandez, was arrested Nov. 7 in Maryland. He is also affiliated with the gang MS 13, Starkes said.

Tai, a high school freshman, was with a group of of 10 to 12 friends who had a verbal altercation with a group of four or five men who boarded a public bus in Silver Spring, Md., about 11 p.m. Nov. 1.
It is unknown what the argument was about, said Starkes.
"Certainly it was verbal and didn't rise to anything physical at that point."

However, as Hernandez exited the bus he turned and fired a handgun from the rear door of the bus into the back of the bus striking the three teens, according to a release issued by the Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department.

Tai and two other teens, aged 14 and 15, were taken to hospitals. Tai died that night; the other two teens who were shot are home and are expected to make complete recoveries.

"At this time we have nothing that indicates that they are gang members," said Starkes of Tai and his friends.
Both Romero and Milan-Canales are being held without bail in the Harris County Jail, awaiting extradition to Maryland.
Starkes declined to comment on how investigators located the pair in Houston.

jennifer.leahy@chron.com