El Paso man kills self after Lubbock chase
BY JASON WOMACK
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
A man who commandeered a pickup Friday morning led police on a chase through South Lubbock before killing himself with a gunshot to the head, Lubbock police officials said.
Adam Garcia, 19, of El Paso shot himself once in the head at the conclusion of the 12-minute chase, which ended in the 4500 block of 39th Street, police said.
About a dozen squad cars blanketed 39th Street on Friday afternoon as police taped off the area surrounding the pickup and investigators removed the body from the vehicle.
Police had pursued Garcia through the residential neighborhood after he rampaged through a Southwest Lubbock shopping center.
Jim Watkins / Staff
Lubbock police officers confer in the 4500 block of 39th Street where a stolen pickup crashed during a police chase and the driver killed himself Friday.
Garcia, who was reportedly carrying a handgun, ran to the parking lot following a traffic stop in the 5400 block of the South Loop 289 access road at about 10:26 a.m.
Officers said Garcia forced a woman at gunpoint to abandon her Ford F-150 pickup, but he did not injure her.
"He fired one, possibly two shots," police spokesman Roy Bassett said.
No one was struck by the gunfire and investigators were still trying to determine if Garcia intended to shoot anyone, police said.
A phone call placed to the victim's home late Friday afternoon was answered by her father, Kim Patton.
Patton said his daughter was still reeling from the morning assault.
"We're just thankful that she wasn't hurt," he said. "She's pretty shaken up right now."
Officers chased Garcia to the corner of 39th Street and Salem Avenue, where he lost control of the truck, drove over a curb and stopped in a front yard.
"He fired one shot into his own head and was pronounced dead," Bassett said.
Melissa Aguirre, 20, was inside the house, feet from where the truck stopped.
"I saw him shoot himself out the window," she said.
Aguirre said she was concerned for the welfare of the children she and her mother care for at the home.
But Garcia never left the truck, which was surrounded by officers, until he turned the pistol on himself.
Police could not speculate Friday on what caused Garcia to run from officers.
At the time of his death, Garcia was facing two criminal charges in Lubbock.
According to court records, he was indicted on a felony driving while intoxicated charge and a charge of endangering a child in August.
