Suspect arrested in slay of NYC nail salon owner Nikki Huang and pal

A long-sought suspect was arrested Tuesday in the gruesome murders of Lower East Side nail salon owner Nikki Huang and her friend — 10 months after their charred corpses were discovered inside a burned-out car, authorities said.

Jahmel Sanders, 30, was busted in the Bronx around 1:30 p.m. for the brutal double-homicide last May 16 during a night of wild and deadly violence between two Lower East Side gangs, according to NYPD sources.

Jahmal Sanders is led out of the 45th Precinct, Tuesday afternoon after being charged in connection to the double homicide of Jesse Parrilla and Nikki Huang. Parrilla and Huang were shot and burned to death in their car on the Shore Rd. in the Bronx back in 2022. (GREGG VIGLIOTTI/for New York Daily News)

A second suspect remains on the loose in the slayings of Huang, 23, and her friend Jesse Parrilla, 22, whose bodies were found inside the car dumped near the Pelham Split Rock Golf Course in the the same borough where Sanders was finally nabbed.

"I thought it would be happy news, but it doesn't bring my daughter back," Amy Chan, the mother of Nikki, told the Daily News. "I am happy that we’re getting somewhere."

The killings ended eight hours of warfare waged by a pair of rival neighborhood gangs, with three people slain and another three wounded by the time the violence came to a halt with the final killings.

Nikki Huang, 23, and Jesse Parrilla, 22.

Sanders was nabbed at a Bronx homeless shelter and taken into custody Tuesday at the 45th Precinct stationhouse in the Bronx on a laundry list of charges including murder, manslaughter, robbery, grand larceny, kidnapping, arson, criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.

He wore a black hoodie and smirked silently as he was walked out of the building by detectives. Sanders’ arraignment was pending Tuesday evening.

Jahmal Sanders is led out of the 45th Precinct station house in the Bronx on Tuesday. (GREGG VIGLIOTTI/for New York Daily News)

Both Huang and Parilla were shot in the head during the lethal spree sparked by a purse snatching on the Lower East Side, where Huang was targeted and robbed. The killers torched the vehicle with their bodies inside before fleeing.

Authorities previously identified the second suspect wanted in the killing as Steven Santiago, 34, who remains on the run.

Police believed Parrilla, a talented basketball player, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed only because of his friendship with Huang.

"I’m grateful," his mother Michelle Morales told The News. "It's been a long 10 months. My family has been grieving, the pain has been unbearable. My son was a good citizen. He didn't deserve what happened to him. He had nothing but a pure heart."

The bodies of Nikki Huang, 23, and her friend Jesse Parrilla, 22, were found inside a car dumped near the Pelham Split Rock Golf Course in the Bronx, on Monday, May 16, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

The double-homicide came after a series of violent incidents sparked by the theft of Huang's pricey Luis Vuitton bag on a neighborhood street. Authorities said she reached out to friends in a local gang known as "Up the Hill," with its members targeting the alleged thieves from the rival "Down the Hill" gang.

One man was shot to death in retaliation, while a second target and an innocent bystander were shot an hour later.

"Down the Hill" members then kidnapped Parrilla and Huang, with the gang-bangers forcing them to lure a gang rival from his home in Ridgewood, Queens, hours later. The target survived a bullet to the face, officials said.

Front page of the New York Daily News for June 20, 2022: Lower East Side stickup across "hill" ignited gang war that killed 3. After Nikki Huang (far l.) was robbed on the Lower East Side on May 15, she sought help from a local crew, stirring violence that took life of man tied to rival gang, and left her and friend Jesse Parrilla (inset r.) dead in a burned car (main photo) and three others shot. (New York Daily News)

Two hours later, the bodies of the two kidnapped victims were found inside the abandoned vehicle.

According to police sources, first victim Brandon Atkinson was targeted to avenge the purse snatch — but he had nothing to do with the hold-up. The shooting quickly amped up the violence, since his brother was a highly-esteemed member of the "Down the Hill" contingent.

Last August, U.S. Marshals arrested Zymir Humphrey in Martinsburg, W. Va., on charges of murder and weapons possession for the killing of Atkinson in the first violent act to follow the robbery.

With Emma Seiwell