Police: License plate reader camera helps Lexington officers arrest murder suspect
Editor’s note: After this case was presented in court, defense attorney Abe Mashni says his office investigated and proved the man arrested was not the actual suspect, and the case was resolved. Read up-to-date coverage here.
Lexington police said they were able to arrest a murder suspect Monday with the help of a Flock license plate reader.
The Flock camera helped police locate and arrest Nicholas Trujillo-Ruiz, 71, who was wanted on a murder warrant in Texas, police said.
Just after 9 p.m. Monday, police were dispatched to the 3700 block of Camelot Drive for a report of shots fired, according to police. Officers found shell casings on scene and a witness gave police a description of the suspect vehicle.
The suspect’s vehicle was tracked down to a nearby residence using a Flock camera, police said, which scans license plates and alerts police if the vehicle has been involved in a crime. One of the residents at the home, Trujillo-Ruiz, had an outstanding warrant out of Texas for murder and was arrested.
Trujillo-Ruiz is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center without a bond, according to court records. Online court documents indicate the outstanding charge had originated from Harris County in 1980.
Officials didn’t immediately have more information to provide because the case was from so long ago.
“What I’ve got is nothing, right now, because this is back before we were computerized,” said John Donnelly, a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Police said the investigation into the shots fired call is still ongoing. Anyone with information about this case was asked to call Lexington police at (859) 258-3600. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Bluegrass Crime Stoppers by calling (859) 253-2020, online at www.bluegrasscrimestoppers.com, or through the P3 Tips app available at www.p3tips.com.
Flock camera program was recently expanded
In December the Lexington council voted 10-4 to expand the Flock camera program that was launched in March 2022.
Under the pilot program, the city was given 25 Flock cameras, which read license plate numbers and compare them against various databases, including stolen vehicles and missing persons. The pilot program was originally slated to last a year.
However, just shy of six months into that pilot, Mayor Linda Gorton asked the council to spend more $230,000 to purchase 75 additional cameras, saying the program has been an overwhelming success.
As of March 24, the license plate readers had helped police recover 145 stolen vehicles valued at over $2.1 million, according to police. The cameras have also helped police serve nearly 200 warrants/subpoenas, charge 235 individuals and locate 17 missing persons.
Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Beth Musgrave contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 12, 2023 at 12:05 PM.
