Authorities have arrested the father of a 5-year-old girl who was found abandoned inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday morning after her mother was discovered dead in Connecticut, law enforcement sources told NBC 4 York.
Elmer Gomez Ruono was cuffed by NYPD detectives and deputies from the U.S. Marshals New York and New Jersey regional fugitive task force as he walked down a Brooklyn street, according to the sources. Investigators believe he stayed hidden during the manhunt for him by bouncing from homeless shelter to homeless shelter.
As Ruono was led out of the police stationhouse Friday night in video captured exclusively by NBC 4 New York, he did not speak to reporters.
Ruono's daughter, who only speaks Spanish, was spotted on the second-floor concourse inside the terminal by Port Authority police. Officers were able to determine she had allegedly been left there by her father and the child was taken into custody by the city's Administration for Children's Services.
Authorities said on Monday that Ruonos was seen at the bus terminal around the time the girl was spotted.
Police said the girl's mother, who is in her early 30s, was found inside a third-floor apartment on Courtland Avenue in Stamford, Connecticut. There appeared to be some signs of a struggle.
Police said there were a few friends and family over the small one-bedroom apartment Sunday night and that there was some sort of domestic dispute after guests left the party, and that's when she was killed.
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It's not clear if the girl witnessed the dispute or the killing.
The girl and her mother had just moved into the Stamford apartment from Flemington, New Jersey, over the weekend. Police said the girl's parents had just separated.
