Hispanic/Latino male Vladimir Antonio Garcia, age 17, left home on the morning of July 7, 2022, and never made it back. Just before 7 a.m., officers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department were dispatched to the 3900 block of Sofley Road—between West Sugar Creek Road and West Craighead Road—after a welfare call. In a church parking lot off Sofley, they found the 17-year-old with a gunshot wound; MEDIC pronounced him dead at the scene.
The department identified him publicly the next day, noting his date of birth and that the investigation was active and ongoing.
Through July, detectives sifted tips and canvassed the Sugar Creek area as the case shifted from a mysterious, early-morning killing to a focused manhunt. On July 25, 2022, CMPD announced they had identified a suspect: 18-year-old Angel Manuel Basurto-Mendoza. That same morning, after a pursuit that crossed into York County, South Carolina, deputies took Basurto-Mendoza into custody. Authorities said he would be extradited to Mecklenburg County to face charges.
Investigators said Basurto-Mendoza was accused of shooting and killing Vladimir Antonio Garcia in that church parking lot on Sofley Road. Warrants listed counts of murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon—allegations that framed the attack not as random but rooted in a robbery plot. Police emphasized the broader investigation remained active even after the arrest, continuing to seek information from anyone who was on or near Sofley Road at daybreak that Thursday.
Community trackers and memorials have since preserved the basic contours of the case: a 17-year-old shot and left in a quiet lot, a city jolted at sunrise, and an arrest that followed eighteen days later after a chase. Public records and local reporting tie Basurto-Mendoza to prior arrests earlier that summer and place him in custody following the July 25 pursuit, pending extradition and prosecution in Charlotte. As of those reports, no additional suspects had been publicly charged in connection with the killing of Vladimir Antonio Garcia.
