SAN DIEGO – A man wanted in the fatal shooting of another man early Monday in the Gaslamp Quarter has been taken into custody by authorities in Tucson, Arizona.
San Diego police said the suspect, Pittsburgh, California resident Lord Gabriel, was arrested about 5 p.m. Monday with assistance from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Gabriel, 25, is accused of fatally shooting Jose Jonathan Garcia of San Diego following a physical altercation involving several people just before 2 a.m. Monday in the 500 block of Island Avenue.
Garcia, also 25, was transported to UC San Diego Health with trauma to his upper body, but later was pronounced dead, according to San Diego police Lt. Michelle Velovich.
While noting it is early in the investigation, police believe Garcia was involved in a verbal altercation with Gabriel, escalating to the point where multiple people began fighting, Velovich said. The circumstances of the dispute were not disclosed by authorities. Police are unclear if Garcia was a part of the physical altercation.
It is believed that Gabriel pulled out a handgun during the fight and fired it several times, hitting Garcia in the process.
“The suspect then got into a 4-door sedan with at least two other companions,” Velovich said in a department news release. “The vehicle fled the scene.”
Upon arrival to the scene of the shooting, police say they found bystanders rendering aid to Garcia near Island and Fifth Avenue. Austin Arroyo, a military member who was enjoying a night out, told Sideo.TV he heard the gunfire from a street away and tried to help Garcia.
“Everybody was panicking,” Arroyo said. “They tried pulling him into the restaurant. … I had them stop right there in the doorway, no point in pulling him into the restaurant, that way they could render aid.”
Anyone with information on the shooting is being asked to call the Homicide Unit at 619-531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.