A suspect was in custody Thursday in connection with a narcotics-related shooting that fatally wounded a young couple and a toddler in Normal Heights more than two decades ago.
Sergio Lopez Contreras, 44, was booked into San Diego Central Jail on Wednesday on suspicion of carrying out the Sept. 4, 2000, triple slaying, according to the San Diego Police Department.
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Shortly after 11 p.m. that day, patrol officers responding to a report of a shooting found 20-year-old Michael Plummer dead in his apartment in the 4500 block of Bancroft Street, SDPD Lt. Jud Campbell said.
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Lying mortally wounded near the body of Plummer were his live-in girlfriend, Adah Pearson, 18, and his nephew, 21-month-old Julio Rangel.
Paramedics took Pearson, a Grossmont College student who had recently graduated from El Capitan High School, and Julio to hospitals, where they were pronounced dead.
The child's parents were present when the shooting took place but were uninjured, according to police.
Detectives determined that the killings "stemmed from a drug sale gone bad," Campbell said.
Contreras was believed to have fled following the shooting to Mexico, where he was eventually arrested on unrelated charges. He was extradited to San Diego this week and was scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon on three counts of murder.
