A gang member previously arrested for attempted murder opened fire on a car with a 9-year-old girl inside Midtown over the weekend, authorities and law enforcement sources said.
Eric Garcia – who was released from jail shortly after June 21 on previous charges – exchanged words with the 22-year-old inside the Hyundai Santa Fe when the car stopped at a red light in Park Avenue and East 50th Street in Manhattan just before 2 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. Garcia, 25, was on foot at the time.
It’s unclear what the apparent dispute was about, but Garcia, who sources say is a member of the violent Chico Gang, pulled out a gun and fired twice at the car, which included the child and another adult inside, cops said. No one was hit by the bullets.
The driver told cops he did not know the suspect, police said.
Garcia fled the scene after the shooting, but police caught up to him a few blocks away at East 48th Street and Madison Avenue, authorities said.
He was arrested after a brief foot chase and caught with the gun in his backpack, police said.
He was charged with criminal possession of a loaded firearm, criminal use of a firearm, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, authorities said.
Two .40 caliber shell casings, along with two bullet fragments, were recovered from the scene, police sources said.
The relationship between the people in the car is unclear, but they all have the same last name, according to law enforcement sources.
Garcia had previously been arrested on Feb. 7, 2019, in East Harlem for attempted murder, cops said.
The arrest follows the shooting of a man in August 2016 at East 119th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, law enforcement sources said. The victim lived.
The case is ongoing, but web records say Garcia was held on $200,000 bail in the case until at least June 21 of this year.
The circumstances of his release were unknown Monday morning. The Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The violent Chico Gang of East Harlem was shot dead last year as part of a joint investigation by police and prosecutors, according to law enforcement sources.
Garcia’s last known address is in Coney Island, Brooklyn, cops said.
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