Group joked over text about shooting that left 16-year-old dead, New Mexico cops say
A group of men accused of a 2021 shooting that left a 16-year-old dead and another teen injured have been charged, New Mexico police said.
In August 2021, a group of six shot at least 200 rounds into a house party with the intent of killing someone inside, according to a Feb. 5 news release by Albuquerque officers.
One of the men told police they “had a beef with someone inside the house,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by Albuquerque Journal.
McClatchy News reached out to police for the criminal complaint on Feb. 5 and was awaiting a response.
The group didn’t kill the intended target but instead fatally shot Gabriel Garcia, 16, and injured another teen whom police didn’t identify, officials said.
“We just got out of work at Bob’s Burgers. We were just hanging out with all the Bob’s family, and we decided to go to a party, and we went to the party and not even 10 minutes it got shot up,” Garcia’s brother, Nathan Garcia, told KOB4 in 2021.
After the shooting, the suspects joked in a group chat as they tried to figure out who would take “credit for the murder,” police said. One group member called the fatal shooting a “team kill,” officers said.
“He filled our lives with so much joy. I will forever miss his great big smile and his contagious laugh, I can hear it every time I close my eyes,” Gabriel Garcia’s family told officers at the time of the shooting.
During that time, the group members were between the ages of 17 and 19, police told KRQE.
Five of the six suspects have been arrested, officers said.
Santos Veronica, Francisco Ramirez, Dominic Baca, Elton Gastelum and Johnny Lopez are in custody on charges of murder, shooting at a dwelling or occupied building and conspiracy, police said.
As of Feb. 6, Lawrence Ramirez-Casiquito, the sixth suspect, is not in custody, but a warrant is out for his arrest, police said.
“Gabe was everybody’s friend. He didn’t care where you came from, what you wore he just loved you. He was the kind of heart that people just fell in love with,” Garcia’s family said in the statement to police.
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