After more than two decades on the run, a slippery suspect who eluded both the NYPD and the FBI by getting himself deported to Mexico is finally back in New York to face charges that he murdered his wife’s brother, cops said.
Nikolay Natividad, 41, has been a suspect since July of 1991 when his brother-in-law, Jamal Salas-Joya, was gunned down in front of horrified residents as he ran along Junction Boulevard in Corona.
The foxy fugitive fled to Mexico after the shooting, but brazenly returned to the US several times. He was even arrested on one of his return trips, but managed to slip away before cops could question him about the homicide, sources said.
Cops had their best shot at cracking the case in 2007, when the hot-headed Natividad was taken into custody for allegedly kicking a cab driver’s door..
Even though Natividad gave an alias, cops were confident they had a murder suspect on their hands, and put a detainer on him while they scrambled to get witnesses together to make their murder case.
“He is Peruvian but he claimed to be a person illegally here from Mexico,” one law enforcement source said. “He got put into a different file somehow and got himself deported.”
In 2009, Natividad was indicted in Queens on second-degree murder charges in the 1991 killing, but he remained in hiding in Mexico, cops said.
A year later, Natividad landed in a Mexican jail after he was arrested on charges of unlawful flight.
Queens cops and the FBI tracked him down, and waged an extradition battle that finally brought him back to New York.
“He was always one step ahead,” said NYPD Cold Case Squad Det. James Osorio, who brought the fugitive back on a flight to Queens with help from the FBI and Mexican authorities.
“But we’re never going to stop. We’re going to do our jobs. If you did something like this, we’re going to do our best to find you and have you prosecuted for what you did.”
Osorio said the Natividad shot Salas-Joya, 26, after several disputes with the victim who confronted him over his alleged abuse of his wife and children.
“They were very unhappy with the way he treated the children,” he said. “It was definitely an issue at the time. The grandma was looking to take the children so they could live with her.”
Instead, Natividad stalked the family as they gathered at Machu Picchu restaurant on Junction Boulevard and pounced on his wife’s protective brother when he stepped outside for a minute, cops said.
Salas-Joya was shot four times in the leg and back “He was shot from behind while running away,” Osorio said. “The mother was in the restaurant and walked outside because she heard her son screaming. She ran outside, saw the victim running up the street. The perp was behind and had a gun and was firing. Her son died in her arms.”
The victim’s mother said she is glad Natividad is finally in custody, but she said the pain will never go away.
“He not only killed my son, he destroyed our families,” Marta Joya, 77, sobbed to the Post. “My son had two sons. They were raised without a father.”
kconley@nypost.com