Docs: Suspect in west Phoenix murder says he doesn’t know why he shot victim
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Court documents are revealing new details after a man was shot to death in west Phoenix Saturday afternoon.
Officers were called just before 4 p.m. to the area south of 43rd Avenue and Thomas Road on reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found 37-year-old Luis Javier Ponce Munoz had been shot, with serious injuries. Paramedics attempted to provide medical aid, but he died at the scene minutes later. Court documents say video surveillance and witness statements pointed to 27-year-old Gabriel Duque Garcia as a suspect.
Newly obtained court documents on Tuesday revealed that Garcia was with Munoz and three others when video surveillance captured them talking to each other when Garcia reportedly pulled a gun and fired at them. Witnesses told officers that they were all there drinking alcohol and hanging out, but none of them described a possible motive or reason for the shooting.
Later, detectives interviewed Garcia, who admitted to owning a gun and that he had it in his Jeep at the time of the shooting. However, he noticed that it wasn’t there when he went home and didn’t know why. When asked with surveillance video, he admitted that he was wearing the same clothes from the time of the murder and identified the shooter as himself. He said he didn’t know why he shot the victim, that he was “sorry,” but he knew that “sorry was not enough.”
Garcia was booked into jail on one count of murder. He is being held on a $500,000 bond.
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