Sept. 4, 2002 – The territory's 29th homicide victim of the year, Jose F. Garcia, 19, was a suspect in a recent carjacking, police said Wednesday afternoon.
Responding to a call shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday, police officers found Garcia's body on the porch of one of the buildings in the Harvey housing community. Officials initially described the victim as a 19-year-old Hispanic. Later in the day, police identified him as Garcia and said he resided at No. 10 Calquohoun.
Deputy Police Chief Angel Santos said the victim had been shot once in the head.
Lt. Gregory Bennerson, chief of detectives, said investigators were seeking to determine the circumstances that led to the fatal shooting. "Patrol units found the deceased on the ground in the vicinity of No. 190 Harvey with a single gunshot wound to the head," Bennerson said. He said Garcia was pronounced dead on arrival at Juan F. Luis Hospital.
Police theorized that the shooting may have occurred as early at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
As of Wednesday evening, police officials said investigators had no motive, no murder weapon and no suspect in the slaying. Police asked that anyone with information concerning the case call investigators at 778-4950, the main police number, 778-2211, or the 911 emergency number.
Garcia is the 12th homicide on St. Croix and the 29th in the territory this year. At this time a year ago, there had been a total of 16 killings in the territory, 9 of them on St. Croix.
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