Teen's death is county's 11th homicide of 2009

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Oscar Garcia, a 16-year-old Yakima boy shot in the head earlier this month in a drive-by, died early Saturday.

His death makes the gang-related shooting the county's 11th homicide this year and further punctuates a recent spate of local violence that includes one other homicide and 10 people injured by gunfire since early May.

Garcia was shot in the 400 block of South Fourth Street late in the afternoon of June 17. Police said he was a known gang member and that it was not the first time they'd been called to the area surrounding the house where Garcia was shot. No arrests have been made in the case.

The bullet entered his brain from the back of his head on the right side, Yakima County Coroner Jack Hawkins said. Garcia had been on life support at Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center since that day and was essentially brain dead, Hawkins said. Garcia's family chose not to disconnect life support, but as the days passed his organs shut down.

"I think the family was holding out for a miracle," Hawkins said.

It never came, and at 1:24 a.m. Saturday, Garcia's heart stopped.

The death is the first homicide in the county since mid-May, when Leonardo Perez was shot in the chest in another incident police believe was gang-related. Perez, 20, was shot May 18 in the 1000 block of North Fourth Street and died the next day.

It keeps the county's homicide rate ahead of last year's pace. At this point last year, seven homicides had occurred. The county finished the year with 18, its second-highest total in more than two decades.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.