A Chilean national accused of shooting them the girlfriend from the suburbs of New York and her two teenage sons, leaving one of them dead, sneaked back into the country after he was deported two decades ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told Fox News Digital .

Fernando Andres Jimenez Meza, 40, is accused of using an illegally owned gun to shoot his girlfriend and her two sons as she defended them at a Somers home around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 28, New York State Police said.

His girlfriend’s 15-year-old son, Michael Raimondi, was killed. Michael Raimondi’s mother and his 13-year-old brother were injured.

The 38-year-old mother of the teenagers has been seeing Jimenez Meza off and on for the past three or four years, The Journal News reported.

NEW YORK MAN BEATS STRANGER FOR WEARING PRO-TRUMP HAT IN SUPERMARKET: POLICE

Murder suspect Fernando Andres Jimenez Meza in Somers Town Court for his arraignment October 29, 2024. He was bitten on the arm and leg by a police dog before his court appearance. (Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

At a vigil on Saturday, one of Michael Raimondi’s teachers said he had a “rich inner life full of imagination and vibrant and unique ideas” and that “there was so much depth and creativity in him that we were just beginning to discover ( it).”

“He loved the magic of origami, the complex mechanics of a car and Legos. He could take anything apart and put it back together,” another teacher said of the 10th grader. CBS reported.

Jimenez Meza was apprehended Wednesday in the nearby town of Putnam Valley after a manhunt following the shooting.

New York State Police are pictured at the scene of a triple shooting at 57 Route 6 in Somers, New York, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (Mark Vergari/The Journal News/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

A retired NYPD detective turned real estate agent helped catch the perpetrator after hearing Jimenez Meza was on the loose near her Putnam Valley office. When she noticed that the air conditioning unit in her office was lying on the ground and not in the window and that the blinds were fully drawn, she checked her office surveillance camera and heard heavy breathing, The New York Post reported.

She took the information to a state trooper parked at a nearby intersection.

“I said, ‘Listen to me … I’m 99.9 percent sure the guy who shot those three people is in my office right now,'” Patricia Schiller told the Post.

Less than half an hour later, Jimenez Meza was caught – but not before being bitten on the arm and leg by a police dog.

NY REPUBLICAN SUES BIDEN, HARRIS FOR ‘TOTAL DISRESPECT’ AFTER ILLEGALLY CHARGED WITH THEFT FOR 5-YEAR-OLD THEFT

New York State Police lead murder suspect Fernando Andres Jimenez Meza out of the courthouse in Somers Town after his arraignment on October 29, 2024. (Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

ICE told Fox News Digital it filed an immigration detainer for Jimenez Meza Wednesday at the Westchester County Jail, where he is being held without bail on charges of second degree murder, attempted second degree murder and second degree criminal possession of a weapon.

“The horrific killing of a high school student in Somers by an illegal immigrant is a story that has been repeated too many times across the country,” U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, RN.Y., wrote in a statement.

Jimenez Meza told US Border Patrol agents that he was a Mexican citizen named Erik Melendez-Arellano when he was caught illegally entering the country near Tecate, Calif., on Aug. 4, 2004, an ICE spokesman said.

He was taken into custody on August 11, 2004 and voluntarily deported to MexicoICE said.

Colorado AIRBNB HOST faces $16,000 in damages after ALLEGED MIGRANT MEMBERS ‘DESTROY’ PROPERTY

Fernando Andres Jimenez Meza signed an order of protection against him while in Somers Town Court for his arraignment on October 29, 2024. (Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

On September 11, 2018, Jimenez Meza was arrested on a DUI charge and released on a $500 fine, the New York Post reported. It is unclear whether local authorities knew he was in the country illegally. The media also said he was charged with assault that year, but the case is sealed and details were not immediately available.