San Clemente Slaying Suspect Held in Delaware : Crime: Officer who stopped to aid stranded motorists arrests 23-year-old man sought in 1990 gang killing, the city’s first.

Four years to the day after a man was shot outside a San Clemente restaurant in that city’s first gang slaying, a suspect was arrested Friday when a Delaware police officer stopped to help stranded motorists.

A computer check of the car’s occupants showed that 23-year-old Juan Jose Ramirez was wanted on suspicion of the Orange County murder, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini. Ramirez, whose identity was later confirmed through California’s computerized fingerprint system, was arrested at the scene without incident and booked into Gander Hill State Prison in New Castle County.

“It was great work on their part,” Martini said, “and a great solve.”

The shooting of 26-year-old Roman C. Calvillo of San Clemente on Nov. 18, 1990, climaxed a night of taunting between rival San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano gang members, police said.

Calvillo was at a dance with friends at the Great Wall restaurant and nightclub in the 100 block of Calle de Industrias. Taunting broke out between Calvillo’s group and a group that included Ramirez from San Juan Capistrano, witnesses told police.

About 1:30 a.m., the groups began throwing bottles, and one man fired several rounds from a .22-caliber automatic handgun at Calvillo, hitting him once in the chest, witnesses said. As restaurant customers fled, the shooter pursued Calvillo and fired several more shots at him in the parking lot.

Calvillo, who was hit in the head and stomach in the second volley, was dead on arrival at a hospital.

Police said the same two rival gangs earlier had been involved in the drive-by shooting and wounding of a 4-year-old girl in San Clemente and were involved in numerous incidents after the restaurant shooting.

In December of 1990, San Clemente police issued an arrest warrant for Ramirez, who they assumed had fled to Mexico.

In 1993, when the Orange County Sheriff’s Department took over law enforcement from the San Clemente Police Department, the city’s six unsolved homicide cases were reactivated and entered into a nationwide computer system, Martini said. A “Wanted for Murder--Special Bulletin” was issued for Ramirez.

At 1 p.m. on Thursday, Patrol Officer Laura O’Sullivan responded to a call about a disabled car, police said. Since Ramirez’s car had no license plate, she asked for the occupants’ identities and ran a routine records check from her car.

When the check turned up the murder warrant for Ramirez, the officer called for backup and the arrest was made.

Ramirez is expected to be arraigned there within a few days, and Orange County sheriff’s officials said they will seek his extradition here.