APD charge 5 men in 2021 fatal shooting of teen after house party in Northeast Albuquerque

Gregory Hasman, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·3 min read

Feb. 5—The Albuquerque Police Department arrested five men — and is looking for a sixth — in connection to the August 2021 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Gabriel Garcia.

Twenty-one-year-old Santos Veronica; Francisco Rodriguez, 20; Dominic Baca, 20; Elton Gastelum, 22; and Johnny Lopez, 19, are in custody, APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said.

They are being charged with an open count of murder, first-degree, shooting at a dwelling or occupied building and conspiracy to commit murder.

There is a warrant out on a sixth man, 20-year-old Lawrence Ramirez-Casiquito, who will also be charged with murder, Gallegos said.

Santos is being defended by the Public Defender's Office, which did not respond to a request for comment as of Sunday afternoon.

It is unknown if Baca, Rodriguez, Gastelum and Lopez have attorneys.

Santos is also facing first-degree murder, kidnapping and two counts of armed robbery charges in the Feb. 11, 2021, shooting death of 24-year-old Elias Otero-Garcia.

Last month, an officer was assigned to the case and started reviewing APD's investigation.

Just after midnight on Aug. 28, 2021, APD was alerted to a shooting by ShotSpotter on the 500 block of Tennessee, near Texas and Marquette. When they arrived, they found Garcia dead inside an apartment where a party took place earlier that night, according to a criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court. Another man was later found and taken to a local hospital with gunshot wounds to his arm and chest. Hospital staff told police he would survive, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, about 200 casings were recovered from the scene that came from four different firearms, including a .223-caliber rifle.

The complaint states that police later received a photo of a group chat in which the suspects joked around as they determined who would take credit for the murder. Rodriguez referred to the shooting as a "team kill" since it could not be established who killed Garcia.

In another group chat, Rodriguez told everyone they needed to "lay low for a few days," the complaint states.

In an August 2022 interview, a man told police he met with the shooters at a park after the incident, where they bragged about a "drive-by" they had just done, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint states that police got a warrant and searched the man's phone, which showed Santos had texted him a group photo of them at the park.

The man told police the shooters told him they had a beef with someone inside the house who was not Garcia before identifying the suspects to police, according to the criminal complaint.

Gallegos said APD worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in tracking down bullet casings to guns that were used in other shootings around the same time.

This includes Sept. 9, 2021, when 111 casings were recovered from a shooting in Southeast Albuquerque that resulted in a man — an associate of the intended target at the August shooting — being taken to a hospital, the complaint states.