Officials on Tuesday identified a 43-year-old man killed in a shooting in the parking lot of a temple in Lowell as Jose Ortiz, a resident of Lowell.
Ortiz was one of three people wounded when a gunman opened fire into a crowd of about 30 people that had assembled in the parking lot of the Swaminarayan Temple on Middlesex Street in Lowell early Tuesday morning. When police arrived to the parking lot, they found two men, including Ortiz, had been shot, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan and Lowell Police Superintendent Greg Hudon said in a joint statement.
Both men were taken to a hospital, where Ortiz was pronounced dead. The other man, a 34-year-old, was treated and released. A third victim, a 26-year-old woman, sustained minor injuries and took herself to a hospital, where she was treated and released, Ryan and Hudon said in the statement.
On Tuesday, Paul Garcia, 38, of Dover, New Hampshire, was arrested in Lawrence and charged with murder in connection with the shooting, according to the statement. Garcia is also charged with armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery by discharge of a firearm, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Investigators believe that two groups of people had gathered in the temple parking lot before the shooting, where they were drinking, partying and lighting off fireworks, according to the statement. A physical altercation broke out between the victims and other people in the parking lot. At that point, prosecutors say Garcia began shooting into the crowd, killing Ortiz. Garcia is then accused of fleeing the scene.
