Police say the 39-year-old suspect arrested in the murder of a 74-year-old Little Tokyo hotel manager was found walking nearby and taken into custody.

Los Angeles police allege Jian Hong Li fatally stabbed 74-year-old residential hotel manager Hideko Oyama Jan. 5 and that robbery was the motive. The scene of the crime, the Chetwood Hotel, is on the southern edge of Little Tokyo, on East Fourth Street, in an area that abuts the crime-plagued Skid Row neighborhood.

“As a resident of the hotel, we had wanted to interview Mr. Li, but he had disappeared,'' Lt. Paul Vernon. said. “Detectives followed leads from Los Angeles to Camarillo, only to discover him walking on First Street, just east of the Los Angeles River.''

Li, who was being held on $1 million bail, had checked out of the hotel the day of the murder, police said.

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