FAYETTEVILLE — A judge will let Washington County prosecutors use evidence of gang association and video of an altercation between gang members in next week's trial of a man accused of shooting and wounding a 14-year-old boy in Springdale last year.
Hector Torres Vega, 21, of Lowell is accused of shooting Joseph Garcia who had stopped his bicycle at the corner of Crawford and Marilyn. Witnesses told police a car drove up and a man with a gun, believed to be Vega, got out and approached Garcia, asked his gang affiliation, then shot him, according to prosecutors.
Garcia was shot twice and suffered wounds to his legs and left hand. Police found two .45-caliber shell casings at the scene. Garcia was riding between his home and his grandmother’s home and has no gang affiliation, prosecutors said.
The shooting came less than five minutes after Vega and Jose Yanez, 18, of Rogers were involved in an altercation with six rival gang members at a nearby Kum & Go convenience store, 1010 N. Thompson St., according to police. The rival gang members left the store westbound on foot in the direction of where the shooting happened and Vega and Yanez left in a silver car, travelling the same direction.
The trial is expected to begin Wednesday.