Aspiring rapper
John P. Garcia, aka
JP (Tha Mex), was gunned down last month in a drive-by shooting. Now, a side-view mirror may have led police to his killer.
The scene -- at Cesar Chavez and Mercier around 4 a.m. on August 8 -- was apparently a shootout. A white Crown Victoria with Kansas plates and several Hispanic men in the car sprayed bullets into a crowd.
Garcia and another man were shot and rushed to a hospital. Garcia, 28, was pronounced dead. The other shooting victim was struck in the foot.
Afterward, cops recovered shell casings from 9 mm, .40 caliber and .45 caliber guns as well as a .45 caliber handgun. They also found a side-view mirror near a busted fence at the end of Mercier where the Crown Vic busted through.
On September 12, police in Kansas City, Kansas, located a white Ford Crown Vic at 3539 Bell Crossing. The car matched the one described in the shooting. It also had front-end damage, kind of like it had crashed through a fence -- and was missing the side-view mirror on the driver's side. The car's owner was a juvenile Hispanic male.
Witnesses told police that
Ramiro Villanueva was the guy popping shots from the Crown Vic's passenger seat. They also ID'ed the juvenile as the driver.
Villanueva is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action.
