SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A man who allegedly shot and wounded a San Diego police officer following a car chase in a stolen vehicle was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges that include attempted murder of a peace officer.
Andrew Joseph Garcia, 21, is accused of shooting Officer Javier Hernandez three times at a Mountain View apartment complex just before 1:30 a.m., Dec. 12, 2022.
Hernandez testified during a preliminary hearing that he was struck twice in the right arm and once in his midsection, with his bulletproof vest stopping that round. He said he has not returned to duty as he undergoes recovery from his injuries.
After allegedly shooting the officer, Garcia then ran to another residence about a block away and was arrested there following a standoff that lasted around nine hours.
Hernandez testified that at around 12:30 a.m., he and another officer spotted an SUV that pulled out of a Logan Heights alleyway "pretty quick." They ran the license plate and discovered the SUV was stolen.
A high-speed chase ensued both on and off the freeway, during which an unidentified passenger was seen tossing items from the SUV, Hernandez testified. At some point, the passenger got out of the vehicle, but police continued chasing the SUV until it stopped at an apartment complex on South 45th Street.
Hernandez said he saw the SUV driver get out and run, and so he chased the man down a narrow corridor between two buildings. When he emerged from the corridor, he was struck by gunfire.
Hernandez had his gun out, but did not fire, according to testimony.
One of the bullets allegedly fired by Garcia entered an occupied apartment unit, though the resident inside was not struck by the round, according to testimony.
San Diego police Officer Ryan Welch of the police department's Air Support Unit was in a helicopter tracking the stolen SUV during the pursuit. He testified that from his vantage point in the helicopter, he could see the SUV driver run down the apartment complex corridor, then take a "shooting stance" before the officer appears.
Video footage taken from the helicopter's camera was played in court and appears to show the shooter fire on the officer, then stumble backwards and fall. The shooter then climbs over several fences before getting to the street, where he is seen running.
Garcia allegedly dropped his gun after the shooting, which San Diego police Det. Kyle Okeson testified was discovered to be an unserialized "ghost gun."
Police later examined Garcia's Instagram account and discovered a message in which he sought to sell a similar-looking gun about a month prior to the shooting.
Investigators also discovered Instagram posts allegedly made by Garcia both during the pursuit and after the shooting.
At around 1 a.m., Garcia allegedly described being chased by police and posted a message, "If you don't hear back from me, this might be it. I'm going to go out dumping."
Later a post from the account read, "I wasn't supposed to go out like this...but (expletive) that, I'm not going to sit in a cell."
At around 2 a.m., which prosecutors allege was about half an hour after Hernandez was shot, Garcia allegedly posted, "I killed a cop" and described being surrounded by SWAT, according to testimony.
He was arrested at around 10:15 a.m. that morning inside a residence on South 44th Street.
The preliminary hearing was held as police continue to search for a suspect in a separate, similar shooting of a San Diego police officer that occurred in City Heights last week.
That officer was shot in the arm Thursday morning by a suspect who was allegedly driving a stolen vehicle. After jumping out of the vehicle and running, police said the suspect fled into an apartment complex and then fired multiple times at the officer.
