BOSTON -- An American charged in the point-blank shooting death of a Canadian highway patrolman who pulled him over for speeding was ordered held without bail Monday pending extradition back to Canada.
Anthony Romeo, 23, of Locust Valley, N.Y., sat bound at the wrists and showed little emotion as U.S. Magistrate Robert Collings ordered him held pending an extradition hearing March 24.
The Canadian government wants Romeo returned to the province of New Brunswick to face charges he shot and killed Emmanuel Aucoin, 30, as the three-year veteran officer and father of two wrote a speeding ticket Sunday morning.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Terry Ryan said Romeo was charged with first-degree murder Sunday, and Canadian and New Brunswick justice departments began extradition proceedings Monday.
'It could be a lengthy process,' Ryan said.
Meantime, authorities in Long Island said Romeo is a suspect in the November 1985 shooting death of John Starkey, 25, son of John Richard Starkey, a former press aide to New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Romeo was arrested Sunday afternoon at Logan International Airport, where he was changing flights from Bangor, Maine, en route to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where authorities believe Romeo, traveling under an alias, was fleeing to.
Aucoin was shot in the head by a high-powered rifle after he stopped a car for speeding on a curving road about 25 miles from the U.S. border in New Brunswick, officials said. The suspected murder weapon was found nearby, and a passer-by told police he saw a gold-colored Porsche speeding from the scene.
An all-points bulletin was issued in New Brunswick and Maine, and the Porsche was found several hours later at the Bangor International Airport parking lot, officials said.
A traffic citation Aucoin was writing when he was slain led to the identification of Romeo on the flight.
While Romeo has not been charged in the Starkey case, a Long Island judge ruled last week police could obtain hair and blood samples from Romeo in the investigation, officials said.
Starkey, 25, was found dead in his family's summer home on Fire Island, N.Y., Suffolk Council Police Detective Thomas Hughes said.
Aucoin was the first of the 150-member New Brunswick Highway Patrol killed in the line of duty since the agency was created in 1980 to cut costs by replacing federal highway patrols with a provincial force.
