Deceased Identified In Christmas Morning Shooting

     Binghamton Chief of Police Joseph Zikuski released more details today in a Christmas morning shooting incident in Binghamton which left one police officer wounded and one suspect dead.  Zikuski identified the dead man as 20 year-old Roberto Garcia who was a native of Cuba and was believed to have family on Binghamton's West Side.

    According to police reports a call was received by Broome Communications early Christmas morning at about 2:29 AM concerning a conversation that was overhead between a white male and an hispanic male indicating a possible home invasion plan.  The caller mentioned one male was believed to have a handgun.  The suspects were reported to have been in the vicinity of Conklin Avenue.

     Two police officers responded and encountered the suspects on the Memorial Street Bridge.  As one officer asked the suspects to put their hands in the air one brought his hands down, pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at that officer wounding her in the right ear.  That suspect then attempted to flee the scene firing more shots back at the officers.  Officers fired back hitting the suspect twice, once in the back.  A third wound to the head was believed to have been self-inflicted as the suspect was firing back over his head toward the officers.

     The injured officer was treated and released from an area hospital.  The second suspect was taken into custody, questioned and released with no charges filed against him.  Police fired a total of eight shots at the suspect as he was fleeing. The suspect fired a total of six shots from his :38 caliber revolver at police.

     According to information in the police report Garcia had been in trouble in the area numerous times including seven misdemeanor arrests in the last 18 months.  He had been in Broome County jail earlier this year.  Because of his troubles with the law the United States attempted to deport Garcia back to Cuba this year, however, Cuba would not allow him to return to that country.  He had been held in a Batavia facility until early November.  The other suspect's name and the identities of the two police officers involved were not released.