19 year old Adam Ezerski was captured in Nevada late Friday night.
Police discovered a rented truck traced to him. Officers said Ezerski had picked up the truck in San Francisco, where a red Mustang belonging to one of the victims was found.
Ezerski allegedly attacked a 43-year-old San Francisco man Tuesday after befriending him and staying at his apartment for two days. The man said he awoke when Ezerski began beating him on the head with a plaster statue.
Ezerski also is accused of strangling Anthony Martilotto, 39, at a Fort Lauderdale hotel on July 26, and bludgeoning to death Irving Sicherer, 76, in Aventura, Fla., a day earlier.
The FBI took him into custody at a hotel-casino in Reno as the city's Pride celebrations were about to begin.
Police said they found the baby faced teen in the hotel room with another man, Troy Young. The FBI took Ezerski into custody, and Young was arrested on a parole violation.
Ezerski will be extradited to Florida to face two murder charges.
FBI spokesman Andrew Black in San Francisco said Ezerski preyed on gay men. The Florida killings sparked a nationwide manhunt. Officers passed out fliers in gay bars in major cities, urging men to be careful.
The arrest shocked most of Reno's gay community. With more than 10,000 in downtown Reno for today's Pride Parade the capture was on most people's mind's. "Any of us could have been the next victim," one man said.
Kaye Crawford, executive director of Reno Gay Pride Inc. said that it points out the fear most gay and lesbian Nevadans have.
"We're just starting to come out of the woodwork, and people are starting to move here," Crawford told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "People from the Bay area ... they don't know what fear means. They don't know how to be afraid."
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Yahoo!- News
August 18, 2001
Police Arrest Alleged Murderer of Gays
SAN FRANCISCO
A California man suspected of wooing, then brutally attacking gay men in at least two different US states was captured late Friday by police who tracked him to nearby Nevada.
Police arrested Adam Ezerski, 19, in Reno, bringing to end a nationwide manhunt by federal and local law enforcement officers after he allegedly killed two men in Florida and allegedly nearly killed another in San Francicso.
"Its a huge relief," said San Francisco police inspector Dominic Celeya after Ezerskis capture.
"Hopefully, there are no more victims out there we havent found yet," Celeya said during a press conference at San Francisco police headquarters.
A nationwide manhunt was launched after Ezerski allegedly killed two gay men in Florida, and brutally assaulted another in San Francisco.
Federal and local police went going door-to-door in San Francisco's gay neighborhoods to warn people about the 19-year-old alleged predator.
Authorities said Ezerski was apprehended via phone tips from people who reported seeing him at various points during his flight from California to Nevada.
At the time of his arrest, Ezerski was traveling with a parolee who was also taken into custody late Friday. Police said the connection between the two men was unclear.
Police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida put out a warrant for Ezerski's arrest on first-degree murder charges in the strangulation death of a 40-year-old Brooklyn, NY man late last month.
Florida authorities also want to question Ezerski about the bludgeoning death of a 76-year-old man days earlier in nearby Aventura, Florida.
The 43-year-old San Francisco victim allegedly was bludgeoned and choked by Ezerski after the pair spent the night together, but survived the attack, FBI spokesman Andrew Black said Friday.
Black said that in each instance, Ezerski allegedly picked up his victims in the local gay club scene.
"He gains people's trust, then victimizes them ... appearing unlikely to be violent," Black said. "Judging from his past behavior, we consider Mr. Ezerski extremely dangerous."
Investigators said a fingerprint found in the California victim's apartment matched Ezerski, who also reportedly has been spotted in the San Francisco area driving the stolen rental car of the slain Fort Lauderdale victim.
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