Cary homicide suspect arrested in N.Y.

Jibrael Menelik, 28, of Apex, was shot at 700 Pony Club Circle in The Grove at Cary Park apartment complex and died at Duke University Hospital on April 10. In late May, Kenneth Lamont Taylor, 33, of Durham, was named as a suspect.

Police announced Taylor's arrest Thursday in Mastic, N.Y., after a three-month search by federal, state and local authorities.

Taylor was being held in New York while local officials work to extradite him to Wake County to face a charge of first-degree murder.

Cooperation from residents of the apartment complex, off Cary Glen Boulevard and Green Level Church Road, helped crack the case, she said.

"We very much appreciate our relationship with the residents of The Grove at Cary Park," Bazemore said. "Their cooperation in this investigation was critical in our being able to solve this crime."

Police have not commented on a motive in the shooting.

Neighbors who called 911 reported hearing two men arguing, then a gunshot.

According to an affidavit for a search warrant, a woman who lives at the apartment told investigators that Menelik had been there for several hours, and she woke up and heard him arguing with a man in a hooded sweatshirt. She was trying to get out of the apartment through a bedroom window when she heard a gunshot.

State Department of Correction records show that Taylor, whose criminal record dates to 1998, has two prior convictions for taking indecent liberties with a child and one for second-degree kidnapping, among others.