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Sixth 2021 house party murder suspect in custody
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A sixth suspect in the 2021 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Gabriel Garcia turned himself in to the Albuquerque Police Department on Wednesday.
Lawrence Ramirez-Casiquito, 20, is charged with an open count of murder, shooting at a dwelling or occupied building and conspiracy to commit murder.
Ramirez-Casiquito is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if he has an attorney.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, just after midnight on Aug. 28, 2021, APD was alerted by the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system to a shooting in the 500 block of Tennessee NE, near Texas and Marquette. When officers arrived, they found Garcia dead from a gunshot wound inside an apartment where a party took place.
Police said about 200 casings from four firearms were recovered from the scene. According to the complaint, police later received a photo of a group chat in which the suspects joked around about who would take credit for the killing.
A man later identified Ramirez-Casiquito and five other men — Santos Veronica, 21, Francisco Rodriguez, 20, Dominic Baca, 20, Johnny Lopez, 19, and Elton Gastelum, 22, as the shooters.
The complaint said Ramirez-Casiquito had a gun — purchased by Veronica’s mother — that was recovered from his apartment in November 2021.
A ballistics test showed a “presumptive positive match” between the gun and casings found at the fatal crime scene, the complaint states.
In June 2023, Ramirez-Casiquito was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in a case that involved pointing a firearm at a smoke shop employee, but the charge was later dismissed due to lack of evidence, according to court records.
It’s unclear if they knew if he was a suspect in Garcia’s 2021 murder.
