One of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives was arrested in Mexico on suspicion of killing two women at Federal Way's Stars Bar & Grill and injuring a male patron in 2023, officials said Thursday morning.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of Samuel Ramirez Jr. in a post on X, saying Ramirez had been on the run for nearly three years after fleeing the country.
Ramirez was arrested in Sinaloa, Mexico, according to the X post shortly after 7:20 a.m. Thursday. Patel said Ramirez landed in Seattle hours ago and was turned over to Federal Way police.
“This is yet another most wanted high value target captured under this FBI and (the Justice Department) with President Trump’s leadership,” Patel said in the post.
Ramirez was charged with first-degree murder and second-degree murder in King County Superior Court in May 2023, for the killings of Katie Duhnke, 37, and Jessyca Hohn, 36, as well as attempted first-degree murder for allegedly shooting a customer in the arm as he ran away.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for Ramirez in November, Patel said.
The FBI announced a $250,000 reward in December for information leading to Ramirez’s arrest and conviction, before the reward was recently upped to $1 million. The FBI had placed him on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives on Tuesday.
Duhnke and Hohn were found dead in the Stars Bar & Grill parking lot along Pacific Highway South. The injured customer told police he’d seen a man identified as Ramirez brandishing a gun. That customer alerted Duhnke and Hohn, who then confronted Ramirez, according to court documents.
When the two women were leaving the bar after closing up, Ramirez hit one of them, prompting the male customer to tackle and punch Ramirez, according to court documents. The man let Ramirez up after he was done fighting, but Ramirez pulled out a gun and shot the man and the two women.
A woman who was supposed to go on a date with a man she knew as “Sam” that same day called 911. She reported that he’d canceled, saying he was sorry, had messed up and needed to leave, according to court documents. In photos she shared with police, her date was wearing the same clothes as Ramirez in security footage.
Materials from The Seattle Times archives were used in this report.
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