A man wanted in a Flagler Beach shooting who said he was not going to jail apparently shot himself dead during a standoff with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team in Palm Coast, according to the sheriff’s office.
Yairton Garcia, 54, was wanted in an Oct. 5 shooting in which a 54-year-old Palm Coast man was found shot in the elbow along State Road 100 near A1A. The bleeding man was found up against a fence at the Margaritaville hotel, which is under construction, Flagler Beach Police said.
The victim had been at Latin night at Finns where he danced with a woman named Mistina Hernandez from Jacksonville. Hernandez was seen arriving at Finns with a man police later identified as Garcia. She would later leave with Garcia. The man who had danced with her earlier left Finns about 1:27 a.m., saw Hernandez and walked to catch up with her, Flagler Beach Police stated in a Facebook post.
Garcia then got in an argument with the man, according to Flagler Beach Police. The man and his friend went back to their car as Garcia followed. The man then turned around and faced Garcia who shot him once, hitting him in the arm, according to Flagler Beach Police. Garcia then tried to run after the man but Hernandez stopped him. She and Garcia got in a car and headed north on A1A.
On Oct. 16, investigators saw that Hernandez’s vehicle had hit on license plate readers off of Matanzas Woods Parkway, according to Flagler Beach Police. Police found 15 Lake Charles Lane as one of several documented addresses for Garcia. The address was near Matanzas Woods Parkway and law enforcement drove by and confirmed her car was there, police stated.
Police later pulled over Hernandez and questioned her. She said on the night of the shooting that she and Garcia were in fear of being attacked and she feared being “gang raped” and that Garcia fired a warning shot to protect her, but video evidence did not support that, police said.
“Garcia maliciously and intentionally pointed his firearm at the victim, who was running away from him, and shot him at a close range,” according to Flagler Beach Police.
Flagler SWAT Team responds
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team converged on the house on Lake Charles Lane in Palm Coast about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday to serve an arrest warrant for aggravated battery and to search the house, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office used a public address system to ask everyone to exit the house and several people complied but not Garcia. He refused to exit, the sheriff’s office stated.
The sheriff’s office Crisis Negotiation Team tried to communicate with Garcia for several hours to get him to surrender but he did not answer his phone or respond to announcements.
The SWAT team used a robot to deliver another phone to Garcia but he still did not communicate with them, the sheriff’s office stated.
The sheriff’s office knew that Garcia was armed so they used the robot to search the house. The robot found Garcia dead on the bathroom floor of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the sheriff’s office stated.
“This is not the outcome we hoped for in this incident. We always strive for a successful resolution,” said Sheriff Rick Staly in a press release. “Garcia was wanted by Flagler Beach Police for a shooting in Flagler Beach and family members had told us that he had made comments that he was not going to go to jail. Unfortunately, he chose a different method to end this situation. Had he allowed us to arrest him, he would have had an opportunity to turn his life around, but his decision made the situation irreversible.”
The sheriff’s office arrested Garcia in 2023 on charges of false imprisonment and domestic battery, but the case was not prosecuted, according to the sheriff’s office. Jail records from that arrest listed Garcia’s address on Market Place Court in Palm Coast.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Palm Coast man wanted in Flagler Beach shooting apparently kills self
