ARREST MADE IN THE 1995 MURDER OF BOBBY MENDES

The Boston Police Department is pleased to announce that Arnaldo Lopes, 28, has been arrested for the 1995 homicide of Robert (Bobby) Mendes.After an exhaustive multi-agency investigation, Mr. Lopes was apprehended today when he arrived at Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International Airport aboard American Airlines flight 1036 at approximately 2:35pm. Lopes was arrested Massachusetts federal warrant dated March 25, 1996, charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
On October 10, 1995, around 8:09 pm, officers from District B-2 (Roxbury) responded to a radio call for a person stabbed. On arrival, officers located Bobby Mendes, 25, of Roxbury suffering from stab wounds. Mendes was transported to a local hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.
The arrest of Lopes is the result of extensive cooperation among numerous law enforcement agencies which include: Boston Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Drug Enforcement Agency, Boston Housing Authority Police, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Prince George’s County Police Department and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Department.
Immediately after the murder, Boston Police Homicide detectives conducted an investigation and identified Arnaldo Lopes as the individual responsible for the murder of Bobby Mendes. Detectives sought and were granted an arrest warrant charging Lopes with murder.
Lopes fled the area and assumed a false identity (aka Michael Eric Hernandez) in his efforts to elude authorities. Boston Police have made every effort to locate and apprehend Lopes. For more than a decade, Boston Police detectives have been running down every lead relative to the whereabouts of Lopes.
Police Commissioner Ed Davis stated, “The efforts of the detectives and agents involved in this case left no stone unturned in their quest for Bobby’s killer. This investigation led authorities from Boston to Cape Verde to Baltimore to Montego Bay and dozens of places in between. Those tenacious efforts paid off today. Let the message be clear: the men and women of this police department are dogged in their efforts to bring those who commit violence in our streets to justice.” Commissioner Davis added, “I hope today’s arrest brings some sense of peace to Isaura Mendes and her family.”