A gang member previously busted for attempted murder opened fire on a car with a 9-year-old girl inside in Midtown over the weekend, authorities and police sources said.
Eric Garcia — who was sprung from jail in November 2020 on previous charges — exchanged words with the 22-year-old man inside the Hyundai Santa Fe when the car stopped at a red light at Park Avenue and East 50th Street in Manhattan just before 2 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. Garcia, 25, was on foot at the time.
It’s not clear what the apparent dispute was about, but Garcia, who sources said is a member of the violent Chico Gang, pulled out a gun and fired twice at the car, which included the child and another adult inside, cops said. No one was struck by the bullets.
The driver told cops he did not know the suspect, police said.
Garcia bolted from the scene after the shooting, but police caught up with him blocks away at East 48th Street and Madison Avenue, authorities said.
He was busted after a brief foot chase and nabbed with the gun in his backpack, police said.
He was charged with criminal possession of a loaded firearm, criminal use of a firearm, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, authorities said.
Two .40-caliber shell casings, as well as two bullet fragments, were recovered at the scene, police sources said.
The relationship between the people in the car is unclear, but they all have the same last name, according to police sources.
Garcia was previously arrested Feb. 7, 2019, in East Harlem on an attempted-murder charge, cops said.
The arrest stems from an August 2016 shooting of a man at East 119th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, police sources said. The victim lived.
Garcia posted bail and was released nearly nine months after his arrest, in November 2020, according to the city Department of Correction.
In Sunday’s case, he was ordered held on $100,000 bond on a second-degree criminal-possession-of-a-weapon charge, according to the DA’s Office.
East Harlem’s violent Chico Gang was taken down last year in a joint investigation by police and prosecutors, according to police sources.
Garcia’s last known address is in Coney Island, Brooklyn, cops said.
