A Connecticut man who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 1992 felony homicide conviction has been arrested again in connection with a highway rage capturing that left a grandfather useless in Bridgeport, according to metropolis police.
Jorge “George” Ortiz, 57, was arrested after a transient foot chase Monday to finish a week-long manhunt and charged with homicide, legal possession of a pistol and carrying a pistol without a allow, Bridgeport police said in a assertion.
He is accused of gunning down 48-year-old Nelson Batista, a grandfather who not too long ago laid his 25-year-old Air Force airman son to relaxation, in a 9 a.m. highway rage incident on Oct. 12, according to a police affidavit.
Ortiz and Batista were strangers, according to Bridgeport Police Chief Roderick Porter.
“This was a random act,” he advised reporters at a information briefing saying the arrest — just hours before Batista’s funeral.
Surveillance video reveals a man recognized as Ortiz following a girl down Park Avenue as the sufferer turned his SUV down a aspect avenue, according to the affidavit.
Ortiz allegedly slapped his fingers on the aspect of the car, prompting the driver to stop and get out.
Ortiz allegedly punched the sufferer first, and they fell to the ground in a scuffle before surveillance video confirmed them struggling for control of a handgun, according to the affidavit.
The metropolis’s ShotSpotter program captured at least two gunshots, with the health worker later figuring out one struck Batista in the chest.
He died at the hospital.
Police credited ideas from the group for Ortiz’s seize after a girl recorded some of the incident on cellphone video and other witnesses helped determine him.
Video taken from inside a vehicle captured some of the scuffle, including the attacker getting up, placing Batista in the head with the butt of a pistol and taking off as the sufferer lies immobile in the avenue.
A detective acknowledged Ortiz from prior encounters, including one in March, according to the affidavit. He had been arrested on misdemeanor drug fees in a case that is still pending.
Police also acquired a tip from a man who also said he could determine Ortiz as the man in the picture.
Court data show Ortiz acquired a 30-year sentence in 1992 for felony homicide.
He was off parole at the time of Batista’s death.
Batista’s son’s funeral was held on Oct. 3 in Louisiana, according to an online obituary.
Batista was an avid fan of Major League Baseball and the NFL, according to his own obituary, and particularly fond of the New York Yankees.
He was a father of six and grandfather of three.