The joy Christian Sluka brought to his music has been stilled, and authorities say a previously deported illegal immigrant is to blame.
Sluka, 23, was killed Saturday night in the western Pennsylvania community of Dormont, which is south of Pittsburgh, according to WPXI.
Allegheny County police said Saul Rivera-Ramirez, 25, has been arrested in connection with the case.
Although the car that killed Sluka was abandoned at the scene, police later tracked down and arrested Rivera-Ramierez on charges including homicide by vehicle and driving without a license.
The suspect is in the country illegally.
“During their investigation, detectives learned Rivera-Ramirez is not a United States Citizen and is an undocumented immigrant. Detectives contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and we would defer any further questions about Rivera-Ramirez’s immigration status to that agency,” Allegheny County police said.
A representative of ICE indicated this was not Rivera-Ramirez’s first interaction with the law.
“ERO Philadelphia can confirm that Saul Ramirez-Rivera is a noncitizen who is in the United States unlawfully. Ramirez-Rivera was previously removed from the United States and unlawfully re-entered, without admission or parole by an immigration official,” the ICE statement said.
“Following his arrest, ERO Philadelphia lodged an Immigration Detainer with the Allegheny County Jail. ERO Philadelphia anticipates ACJ will not honor the immigration detainer given its current policies,” the ICE statement said. A detainer allows ICE to have custody of an individual prior to release.
Sluka’s death left a hole in the community where he made life go down a little easier.
“Today, I am devastated by the loss of the brilliant local talent, Christian Sluka. As good a bass player as he was he was an even better son, brother, cousin, nephew, and friend,” the venue Gold Mountain Music posted on Facebook.
“He was a CORE member of the Gold Mountain Music community and present at almost every event. If he wasn’t on stage with his band Osprey, he was in the crowd with his family ALWAYS smiling and looking after his little brothers. I will always be grateful that Christian performed with us, laughed with us, supported us, and was an overwhelming example of generosity to everyone he encountered,” the post said.
His cousin, Noah Goisse, said there was more to Sluka than music.
“He was the best person I knew in my entire life, and he was the greatest role model I had,” Goisse said, according to CBS.
“His family struggled for a long time,” Goisse said. “And being the older brother to three siblings, he really had to pick up all the pieces and show them what kind of man they should be.”
“I’ve never met or played with someone in my entire life who had such an interesting feel for music and understood art in a complex and beautiful way like he did. You could tell it was coming from his soul,” Goisse said.
Goisse had seen Sluka on the night he died.
“As I was walking down the street with a couple of friends, he drove by, honked, waved and that was the last I saw of him,” he said.
