The man wanted in a brutal New Yearโs Day hit-and-run double homicide has been caught in Missouri.
Michael D. Leday, 28, was arrested by deputies from the U.S. Marshalโs Service in Kansas City, Mo., Sgt. Pete Dugan, spokesman for the Tucson Police Department.
The Marshals Service said Leday was tracked down to a hotel in Kansas City. When officers approached him Tuesday night, he ran into a wooded area.
After a search involving more than 40 officers, dog teams and a air unit, Leday was captured. He was jailed and is awaiting his return to Tucson.
The Marshals Service said Leday caught a bus out of Tucson the day after the violent incident where two people were killed and one was critically injured. He was joined there by his girlfriend, who was also arrested Tuesday on charges of fleeing and failure to obey police.
Leday faces two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Patrick Balbastro and Cindy Burnett. Additional charges are expected in regard to a third victim, Balbastroโs girlfriend, who also was run over by Leday. She remains hospitalized.
Balbastro, 32, was the good Samaritan who stopped to help Burnett, 46, who was being assaulted by a man โ now identified as Leday by police โ in a south-side neighborhood shortly before 4 a.m. Jan. 1. The assault occurred in the 2200 block of East Sunland Vista, near East 36th Street and South Campbell Avenue.
Balbastro died at a hospital after Leday turned on him, jumped in Balbastroโs car and deliberately ran over him, his 43-year-old girlfriend and Burnett.
