Azareel J. Martinez, 26, a male of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, arrived home in Davenport, Florida, on the evening of May 21, 2025, as an ordinary family disagreement spiraled into chaos. Inside a bedroom, his 9-year-old brother had just been disciplined for secretly playing Fortnite; in the turmoil, the child pulled a 9mm handgun from a nightstand. Their mother struggled to wrestle the weapon away until her husband, 43-year-old Kelly Agar Garcia, took control of the gun.
Unaware of the full backstory as he entered the room, Azareel J. Martinez demanded to know why Garcia was armed, and words escalated into violence in a matter of seconds. Garcia opened fire, striking Azareel J. Martinez multiple times in the chest and abdomen; as the confrontation spilled into the hallway, additional shots rang out. Paramedics rushed Azareel J. Martinez to a hospital, where he died from his wounds.
Police later detailed how the argument began with a simple punishment over a video game, a rule that had been set to keep the household calm. The 9-year-old’s knowledge of the gun’s location—and the ease with which he accessed it—became the tragic hinge of the night. Investigators emphasized that if the firearm had been properly secured, the encounter that ended the life of Azareel J. Martinez, 26, might never have happened. The incident occurred in the Citrus Landing community of Davenport around 7:10 p.m., drawing both city police and county forensic technicians to an extensive homicide scene.
Detectives interviewed witnesses and collected ballistics and scene evidence that undercut any hint of self-defense. Officials noted that at least one wound to Azareel J. Martinez, 26, was in the back, a detail that weighed heavily as they reconstructed the sequence of gunfire from the bedroom into the hall. The medical response, the physical evidence, and the statements from those inside the home formed the backbone of the case as authorities prepared arrest paperwork overnight.
By the next day, Davenport police announced the arrest of Kelly Agar Garcia. He was charged with second-degree murder for the killing of Azareel J. Martinez, 26, and with unlawful storage of a firearm for allowing a minor access to a gun. He was booked into the Polk County Jail to await court proceedings. In public statements, the police chief underscored the preventable nature of the killing and the responsibility that comes with firearm ownership around children, framing the death of Azareel J. Martinez, 26, as an avoidable catastrophe born of a single unsecured drawer.
As news spread, friends and family remembered Azareel J. Martinez, 26, for his kindness and generosity, a portrait at odds with the suddenness of the violence that claimed him. Memorial postings and regional coverage traced his ties to Brownsville, Texas, while neighbors in Davenport grappled with the echoes of the gunshots and the quiet that followed. In the official record of that night—arrival of patrol cars, interviews, the methodical collection of shell casings—the name of Azareel J. Martinez, 26, remains the center of a story that began with a rule about a game and ended with a family forever rewritten.
