Latino gang member accused of targeting African Americans in Highland Park is captured — 15 years later

A Latino gang member wanted for more than 15 years in connection with a racially motivated killing of a black man in Highland Park has been captured in Mexico and turned over to the FBI, officials said Friday.

Merced Cambero, 37, was taken into custody by Mexican authorities in Baja California and turned over to the FBI at the border Friday. Federal prosecutors allege that he was one of three shooters who gunned down Kenneth Kurry Wilson, an African American man, in Highland Park while he looked for a parking space in April 1999.

Federal prosecutors charged Cambero while he was on the run with conspiracy against rights, interference with federally protected activities, aiding and abetting, and use or discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence causing death. Cambero, according to federal court documents, is a member of the Avenues gang that waged a campaign of terror against African Americans.

FBI officials said that Cambero was captured with the help of San Diego police. According to an indictment, Cambero was one of the Avenues gang members who spotted Wilson as they drove by in a stolen van. They allegedly piled out of the vehicle and rushed Wilson, mortally wounding him with a barrage of bullets fired from a shotgun and two pistols.

In 2006, three other members of the Avenues gang were sentenced to life in federal prison as part of the six-year conspiracy that also saw another black man gunned down at a bus stop in December 2000. A fourth man was convicted as a lookout in that 2000 slaying of Christopher Bowser. Cambero, according to federal court documents, is part of the Avenues 43 clique.

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