The accused gunman in the fatal Bronx road rage shooting of a young U.S. Navy veteran was arrested trying to board an international flight to escape justice, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Michael Aracena had abandoned the car he drove during the fatal clash and was about to hop on a flight to the Dominican Republic when NYPD cops arrested him for allegedly shooting 27-year-old Keino Campbell to death, prosecutors said during the suspect’s arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court.
Wearing a brown hoodie and sporting braided hair tied in the back, Aracena, 20, said nothing as Judge Scott Krompinger ordered him held without bail.
Aracena is charged with murder, manslaughter, and weapons possession and could face 25-years-to-life in prison if convicted of shooting Campell after they got into a fender bender near Co-op City about 2 a.m. Saturday.
An accomplice handed Aracena the gun used to shoot Campbell in the chest as the victim sat behind the wheel of a 2012 gray Infiniti, prosecutors said.
Mortally wounded, Campbell sped off to the nearby corner of Givan and Palmer Aves. in Baychester, where he fell unconscious, police said. Medics rushed Campbell to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died a short time later.
The accomplice who passed Aracena the gun is still being sought, officials said.
Following the shooting, Aracena, who lives on the Upper West Side, drove to Pennsylvania, where he abandoned his car, according to prosecutors. He then bought a ticket to the Dominican Republic, officials said.
“The defendant was apprehended attempting to board an international flight,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Janene Carter said in court. “Before going to the airport, defendant fled to Pennsylvania, where his car was recovered.”
When he was apprehended, Aracena had multiple passports on him, Carter said.
Defense attorney Laura Stasior declined to comment on the charges during the hearing. Aracena is due back in court Friday.
“I knew that God would bring this to justice,” Campbell’s aunt Vermaline, 49, told the Daily News on Monday after learning of Aracena’s arrest. “Keino was a spirit that was godly and I knew that God would make whoever did this to him get justice.”
“You took a person’s life for a car? Are you crazy?” the aunt, who asked that her last name not be used, added. “He chased him down. That’s crazy to me. Who even hears of road rage anymore? I didn’t even think that these things still happen.”
Relatives said Campbell served at a military base in San Diego from 2019 to 2022. His plans of becoming a pilot were dashed because of eyesight issues. He went on to dream of doing security work at the White House or becoming an electrical engineer, for which he planned to go back to school, according to his family.
“He said it would take a while to get there, but he was telling me all these steps,” his mother, Suzette Thomas, told The News Sunday. “This boy always thought ahead because he wanted to make sure his family wasn’t in poverty. He dreamed big.”
“I know he would do such great things in this world if he had a chance,” she added. “I’m so heartbroken.”