[symple_googlemap title=”Army vet killed” location=”13200 block of Dronfield Street, Sylmar, CA” height=”300″ zoom=”15″]
Updated 6:25 p.m. Nov. 9, 2014
A 21-year-old Army veteran was shot and killed this morning following a dispute at a party in Sylmar that was being held to celebrate his homecoming.
The gathering at the home of Francisco Garcia’s girlfriend in the 13200 block of Dronfield Street carried over into Sunday morning, just before 2 a.m., when the partygoers decided to move up the street, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mission station.
Garcia, who recently returned from Afghanistan, was standing on the west sidewalk, north of Astoria Street, when two cars stopped northbound. A man got out of a dark-colored SUV, smashed a beer bottle on the ground and yelled at Garcia from across the street, police said.
The man walked to a white Toyota or Honda behind the SUV, retrieved a handgun from an occupant and started shooting, the statement said. Garcia was hit and died at the scene.
“It appears Francisco was the target of the attack,” Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon, commanding officer of the Mission Detective Division, said. “Apparently, a simmering dispute had boiled over during the night, and this suspect came looking for Francisco. Figuring out the dispute should lead us to the shooter.”
“The ironies are obvious,” said Vernon. To survive as a soldier in an overseas conflict, only to be killed in your neighborhood upon your return.”
Detectives do not believe the occupants of the SUV or white car had been at the party earlier, but came from another location, according to the statement. Detectives interviewed several witnesses and collected evidence, including several bullet casings. No one else was injured.
Police said the party was a homecoming for Garcia, but family members told reporters at the scene that it was not.
Anyone with any information regarding the shooting attack was asked to call Mission station detectives at (818) 838-9948.
— City News Service