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New arrest made in freeway shooting
Detectives nab second man in connection with murder of 12-year-old boy
Katherine Rosenberg January 14, 2007
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SAN BERNARDINO — Authorities made a second arrest in the freeway shooting and murder of a 12-year-old Hesperia boy late Friday night.


Detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Detail were investigating the murder of Gabriel Garcia, who was shot while riding in a vehicle traveling on Interstate 215 near the Interstate 15 interchange on Dec. 11, according to Sgt. Tom Bradford.


An individual in a white Ford Explorer opened fire on the car Garcia was a passenger in and the boy was later transported to Riverside Community Hospital. Garcia was taken off life support and died on Dec. 14, the same day that Pedro Escobedo, 43, of San Bernardino turned himself in for his involvement in the shooting.


He was the driver of the Ford Explorer and was subsequently arrested for Garcia’s murder.


Friday night, detectives also arrested Luis Chavira, 23, of San Bernardino on suspicion of murder, said Jodi Miller, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.


“There was evidence recovered from that vehicle that assisted (homicide) in the identification of that second suspect, and he was subsequently arrested,” Miller said.


Investigators would not say what type of evidence linked Chavira to Garcia’s murder.


The Associated Press reported that the shooting was the result of an immigrant smuggling deal that went bad. Those reports cite court documents filed in San Bernardino in which a man said the shooting was not the result of road rage, but indicated that it stemmed from a deal in which Gregorio Hernandez, 32, of El Cajon — who was the driver of the Nissan Garcia was shot in — was to hand the immigrants to family members in exchange for $40 each, officials said.


When they stopped in a parking lot to make the transfer with people in a second car, a dispute arose and a chase began. Shots were fired twice, about 20 minutes apart. The second shot struck the boy in the head, the Associated Press reported.


Hernandez, who is in the country illegally, said he kept driving for 20 to 30 minutes, hoping someone would call police because he was afraid to call himself, officials said.