The man who San Diego police suspect shot three Church’s Chicken employees, killing one of them, more than two weeks ago was arrested Friday in Tennessee, an announcement that brought a bit of respite to the slain worker’s new husband.

The U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release that 49-year-old Albert Lee Blake was taken into custody at a house in Memphis. San Diego police later confirmed the arrest.

Albert Lee Blake, 49 (Courtesy of Shelby County Jail)

“Investigators have been working around the clock since the night of the shooting, which led to a suspect being identified,” San Diego police said in a news release Friday evening.


Police said a warrant had been issued for Blake’s arrest, charging him with the murder of 28-year-old Maribel Merino Ibañez. Investigators also came to believe that Blake had left California, and reached out to federal marshals for help.

Authorities did not say how they came to suspect Blake was the shooter, or how he was tracked to a home a few miles east of the Mississippi River, in a city some 1,800 miles from San Diego.

With the arrest, Blake now faces extradition back to California. San Diego police referred questions to the county District Attorney’s Office, saying that a murder case had been filed.

San Diego Superior Court online records show a case was filed Nov. 13 against a man with the same name and birth year as Blake.


That case was filed a week after the deadly shooting and nine days before Blake’s arrest. The Union-Tribune could not immediately confirm Friday night that the case was linked to the Church’s Chicken shooting.

Authorities say Blake entered a Church’s Chicken in Otay Mesa on Nov. 6 and, moments after some sort of confrontation over money, shot three workers — a woman and two men — from across the counter. One employee, Ibañez, was killed.

Maribel Ibañez, 28 (Courtesy of Facebook)

An officer and witnesses said the altercation involved a counterfeit $100 bill, but a Church’s Chicken employee who was there during the shooting said Ibañez simply wasn’t allowed to accept the $100 bill.


The man left. He came back with a gun.

The Church’s Chicken employee told the Union-Tribune that Ibañez was shot first, then the two men. The employee watched as the gunman turned back to the injured Ibañez on the ground, and again opened fire on her.

After the shooting, the gunman walked out and drove off in a blue car. Authorities released a photo of the car, and a description of the gunman. Blake was arrested 16 days later.

Ibañez was a newlywed, just married on March 12, and had worked at the same Church’s location for about a decade.


Reached by phone Friday evening, husband Ramon Mendoza said he had gotten word of the arrest “just moments ago.” The news that Blake was in custody left him and others “a little bit more calm.”

“The good thing is they have him,” Mendoza said, speaking to the Union-Tribune in Spanish. “That’s what had me worried.”

He thanked the community for its support, and thanked authorities for pursuing the suspect.

“We’re going to wait and see if justice is served as it should be. We know it’s going to be a long process.”


Online records show Blake was detained at the Shelby County jail in Memphis, and has a court hearing there set for Monday. Records do not indicate whether he has a lawyer.

Union-Tribune staff writer David Hernandez and the Associated Press contributed to this story.