A man has been arrested in a weekend shooting that left another man dead and two people injured outside a Hindu temple in Lowell, Massachusetts, authorities said Tuesday.
Paul Garcia is suspected of firing into a crowd when a fight broke out early Saturday morning outside the Swaminarayan Temple on Middlesex Street, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office and Lowell police. They also identified the man who was killed as Jose Ortiz, a 43-year-old from Lowell.
Garcia, a 38-year-old from Dover, New Hampshire, was arrested at an apartment in Lawrence Tuesday on charges of armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery and unlawful possession of a firearm, officials said. He's also expected to be arraigned on a murder charge in Lowell District Court on Wednesday.
It wasn't immediately clear if Garcia had an attorney who could speak to the charges.
Lowell police were called to the parking lot about 4:53 a.m. for reports of a shooting and found three people who were wounded, officials have said. The other people who were wounded in the shooting, a 34-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, have been released from the hospital.
They were at the parking lot with two groups totaling about 30 that had been partying, drinking and setting off fireworks, officials said. Garcia allegedly opened fire after the physical altercation, involving people who were shot, broke out.
In the wake of the shooting, the parking lot was taped off and investigators focused on several cars, alcohol bottles and a pile of clothes left behind. The shooting interrupted a three-day a religious celebration for people from a specific village in India; about a thousand were expected to come out for the festivities, and police ended up redirecting them around the crime scene so they could proceed with their program.
