Local News

Actions

Eyewitnesses watch in horror as shooter opens fire on accused stabber

Posted
and last updated

Sophie Johosky couldn’t believe it. A man opened fire into a car right near Whitney Elementary School, as kids walked to class. “Oh my god. Is this really happening?” Johosky asked. “I was worried about the other kids coming late.”

Johosky and her husband Robert Jones had just left the school after a parent-teacher meeting for their little son, Jordan. The couple feared a bullet would miss its target. “It could’ve ricocheted and hit a kid,” Jones said. “Just to get my 4-year-old away from there.”

Investigators said James Garcia was stabbing his stepfather inside a vehicle around 9 a.m. Thursday. A passerby, who saw the brutality, opened fire several times, hitting Garcia once in the abdomen. “He came up to the driver’s side of the car, pulled him out, pushed him to the ground and fired three or four more times,” Jones said.

It was a sight Johosky never wants to witness again. “It was probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen,” Johosky said.

Both Garcia and his stepfather were in stable condition at the hospital. Garcia is charged with assault with a deadly weapon.