On the evening of July 28, 2016, a normal dinner service at Taqueria Oaxaquena on Marietta Road in Canton, Georgia, was shattered by gunfire. Edel Cortes Mendoza, a 41-year-old male, was eating a meal when a man opened fire, striking him in the torso, abdomen, and thigh. First responders rushed to the scene around 7:40 p.m. to find Mendoza critically wounded.
He was quickly transported to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, but tragically, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.
The Canton Police Department immediately established a perimeter around the restaurant and began a search for the shooter. Within this secured area, they located and arrested a suspect identified as Ylarrio Garcia Jarquin. Investigators determined that the weapon used in the shooting was a Kahr. 40 caliber handgun. During the incident, Jarquin also allegedly pointed the firearm at another patron inside the restaurant.
In the following months, the legal process moved forward. In October 2016, a Cherokee County grand jury indicted Ylarrio Garcia Jarquin on multiple charges, including malice murder, felony murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and two counts of aggravated assault. His arraignment was scheduled for November of the same year. The motive for the fatal shooting was not made immediately clear in the initial reports.
