Holly MatkinBronx, NY – An alleged gang member who nearly shot a little girl when he opened fire on his rivals on a crowded Bronx sidewalk is already back on the streets after posting just $10,000 bail.
“Giving him bail is like giving him permission to do it again, like it didn’t matter,” one local resident told the New York Post. “The judge should have been as outraged as the community.”
Police said the incident occurred at about 2 p.m. on Feb. 22, when 16-year-old Edgar Garcia pulled out a gun and pointed it at a 19-year-old man who was standing with four other people on the sidewalk at the intersection of Gerard Avenue and McClellan Street, the New York Post reported.
An elementary school-aged girl wearing pink leggings and a backpack was the closest person to the gunman when he pulled out his weapon and directed it at the group of people behind her.
The girl in the video turned around and started running away from Garcia, but she had only made it about 10 yards down the sidewalk when he started shooting.
She ducked into a business to hide right after the first shot was fired, the video showed.
The gunman fired three shots in the direction of the group, but his target ran off quickly across the street, and nobody was hit, the video showed.
“She is lucky. Like an angel is watching over her because she was really close,” 75-year-old Emmanuel Yusuf said. “You’ve got kids going up and down. Someone could get hit with a stray bullet.”
Police later arrested Garcia on charges of attempted murder, reckless endangerment, attempted assault, harassment, and weapons possession, the New York Post reported.
He has been charged as an adult.
According to investigators, Garcia is a known member of the Mexican gang, Los Vagos.
They said he was targeting five members of a rival gang, Los Cholos, at the time of the shooting.
Although prosecutors asked Justice John Collins to set the alleged would-be killer’s bail at $100,000, Collins set his bail at just $10,000 cash on Friday.
Garcia walked out of jail a short while later, leading to outrage among the residents of the neighborhood where the shooting occurred.
“The next time he might not miss. And the sad thing is he might hit an innocent child,” a 36-year-old mother told the New York Post. “I say no bail, or set it so high that he can’t pay it.”
Garcia’s attorney, Roger Asmar, said that his client has been wrongfully accused.
He claimed Garcia is not a gang member and said he doesn’t own a firearm.
“How can you look at the video and look at my client,” Asmar told the New York Post. “You can’t tell who is who.”
He added that Garcia has a “great family,” and that he will plead not guilty.
Garcia is due back in court on Monday, the New York Daily News reported.
You can see the video of the incident below: