At approximately 11:46 p.m. Sunday, April 18, the McAllen Police Department responded to the 2500 block of Hibiscus Avenue. Officers were looking into a report of a suicidal man who was cutting his arms. Police didn’t find him.
About three hours later, police were again called to the same location, this time for a report of an irate man who they say was possibly armed and breaking into a car.
The situation quickly escalated as the man threatened to shoot police and promised he would find out who they are and kill them and their families, according to a probable cause affidavit.
As police officer Russell Parada ordered the man to show his hands, the man made a furtive movement as if he was pulling a gun and the officer fired three times at him, missing.
It turns out the man didn’t have a gun and police were able to subdue him after shooting him with a pepper ball.
The man is Adrian Garcia Jr., 26, of Edinburg, the same man police had been looking for hours earlier, though they didn’t know this until he was brought to the jail and found with superficial cuts on both of his forearms.
Garcia is charged with retaliation, terroristic threat against a peace officer, resisting arrest, burglary of a vehicle and failure to identify in a fast-moving situation that could have been deadly — as described in a report written by Parada, the officer who fired the shots at Garcia.
As soon as he arrived on scene of a disturbance about a man who was yelling and possibly armed, Parada said in his report that a woman waved him down and yelled that a man was getting into her 2005 Chevrolet Malibu.
“My attention then turned to a male who yelled, ‘F— you b—- this isn’t your car!’,” the report, which is attached to Garcia’s probable cause affidavit, stated.
The officer further stated that Garcia then walked toward him and began yelling more profanities.
“In a loud clear tone of voice, I advised the male to calm down and tell me what was going on. The male then began to say in a threatening manner, ‘Shut the f— up before I cap your a–!’,” Parada wrote.
The officer described him as being angry and upset.
“I then asked the male if he had any weapons on him and he stated, ‘I’m going to f—— shoot and kill you!’ The male then reached behind his back towards his waist area with his right hand as if he was reaching for a handgun,” Parada’s report read.
The officer then expressed disbelief in his report.
“I couldn’t believe the male subject was doing this and I started thinking I wouldn’t see my family members anymore because this male was going to shoot/kill me. At this moment I feared the male had a gun in his waist line of his pants and I drew my department issued weapon,” Parada wrote.
According to the officer, he ordered Garcia to show his hands to which the again threatened him.
“I continued to provide clear commands at the male to show me his hands. The male stated, ‘You won’t f—— shoot me you p—-!’,” Parada said.
That’s when Parada stated Garcia made a fast and furtive movement that made him believe Garcia was drawing a gun at him, followed by Garcia pointing his right hand at the officer as if he was aiming to shoot the officer.
“I reasonably believed that the male subject had a handgun and he was going to shoot and kill me. I had no choice and it was necessary for me to use deadly force to protect myself and the victim caller from the suspect’s imminent threat that he posed,” Parada said in his report.
That’s when Parada fired his gun and ducked for cover behind his police unit.
“I then saw the male’s hands and did not see a handgun. I continued to provide clear commands for him to get on the ground,” the officer wrote.
By this time, other officers began arriving on scene.
“The male began to yell, ‘Shoot me!’ with his hands at his side. I then heard the male begin to state that he was going to find out who we are (Us Officers) and kill us along with our families,” Parda wrote.
That’s when one of the officers hit Garcia with a pepper ball.
“The less lethal pepper ball rounds had no affect on the male as he showed no signs of discomfort from the rounds as they hit his body,” Parada wrote.
At some point after being hit by the pepper ball, Garcia turned around and the officers rushed in to detain him, which they accomplished, after a struggle, according to the report.
Police have said the man continued to threaten to kill the officers at the jail and refused to identify himself.
The woman who called police also had a harrowing experience after being woken up by loud noises coming from outside her apartment.
When she looked outside her kitchen window, she saw Garcia by the driver’s side door of her vehicle, according to the report.
She told police that she went outside to confront Garcia and was quickly greeted with vulgarities.
According to her, Garcia was “messed up and not all there.”
Before she knew it, Garcia had used a brick to break a window and was inside her vehicle, according to the report.
As for Garcia, he remains in the Hidalgo County jail on $85,000 in bonds.
