Officer Javier Hernandez addressed the shooter in court. NBC 7’s Shandel Menezes reports.
A man who shot and wounded a San Diego police officer following a car chase in a stolen vehicle was sentenced Friday to 47 years to life in state prison.
Andrew Joseph Garcia, 22, pleaded guilty to attempted murder on a peace officer and other charges for the Dec. 12, 2022, shooting of Officer Javier Hernandez.
The officer testified during a preliminary hearing last year that while chasing Garcia on foot, he rounded the corner of a building at a Mountain View apartment complex and was shot twice in the right arm and once in his midsection, with his bulletproof vest stopping that round.
After the shooting, Garcia ran to a vacant residence about a block away and was arrested there following a standoff that lasted around nine hours.
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Prosecutors allege that throughout the night, Garcia made Instagram posts connecting him to the pursuit and shooting.
At around 1 a.m., one of the posts described being chased by police, with a message reading, "If you don't hear back from me, this might be it. I'm going to go out dumping."
Later, a post from his Instagram account read, "I wasn't supposed to go out like this...but (expletive) that, I'm not going to sit in a cell."
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Around 2 a.m., about a half-hour after Hernandez was shot, Garcia posted, "I killed a cop" and described being surrounded by SWAT officers.
Garcia also pleaded guilty and was sentenced Friday in a separate attempted murder case, in which prosecutors say that about eight months before shooting the officer, Garcia shot at two rival gang members, striking one of them in the leg.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Aaron Katz sentenced Garcia to 47 years to life in prison for both attempted murder cases. He also sentenced Garcia to a three year concurrent sentence for violating his probation in an East County case in which he also stole a vehicle and engaged in a pursuit with law enforcement.
Hernandez and more than a dozen other police officers attended Friday's sentencing hearing.
In a statement delivered in court, Hernandez said, "The impact of your actions on Dec. 12, 2022, have impacted my life in ways that you will never understand. That night, you tried to take everything from me, but you failed."
The pursuit that night began after Hernandez and his partner spotted an SUV that pulled out of a Logan Heights alleyway "pretty quick" and was discovered to be stolen following a license plate check, Hernandez testified.
The chase took both the SUV and the officers on and off the freeway until the SUV stopped at an apartment complex on South 45th Street.
Hernandez said he saw the SUV driver get out and run, and so he chased the man down a narrow corridor between two buildings.
When he emerged from the corridor, he was struck by gunfire. Hernandez had his gun out, but did not fire, according to testimony.
Officer Ryan Welch of the San Diego Police Department testified that from his vantage point in a police helicopter, he could see the SUV driver run down the apartment complex corridor, then take a "shooting stance" before the officer appeared.
The shooter then opened fire on Hernandez, with bullets striking the officer and entering a nearby apartment, though no one inside the unit was struck. The shooter then ran and hopped a fence, dropping his gun, which turned out to be an unserialized "ghost gun."
Garcia did not make a statement in court Friday, but his defense attorney, Shannon Sebeckis, said her client has made positive strides while in jail.
"He has availed himself to multiple programs while in custody to try to better himself and place him in a different position," Sebeckis said. "He has reconnected with members of his immediate family. He has made positive decisions regarding his behavior while in custody. I think that's partially why we see ourselves here today."
The judge acknowledged that Garcia had a difficult upbringing that played a role in his criminal history, stating "Your life has not been easy. Your 22 years have not been easy," but said, "It does not excuse your conduct."
San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement released after the hearing, "Peace officers have an incredibly difficult job, and this case demonstrates how in an instant their lives can be in danger -- in this instance from a suspect wielding a ghost gun."
