Ignacio “Nacho” Garcia, 60, a Stockton street vendor, was fatally shot on the night of May 16, 2025, during an attempted robbery along the 1600 block of South California Street. Officers were dispatched around 8:50 p.m. and found Ignacio “Nacho” Garcia, 60, wounded; he was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery but did not survive. Family members identified the victim as a beloved local vendor known for selling food from a push cart, and police initially said at least two masked
assailants were involved in the robbery attempt.
In the days after the killing, relatives and neighbors described Ignacio “Nacho” Garcia, 60, as a hardworking street vendor heading home from a day of sales when he was ambushed, robbed and shot. A family fundraising page echoed that account, noting that he was targeted while returning from work and that his death left loved ones reeling and the community grieving a fixture of Stockton’s street-vending scene.
Authorities later announced arrests. On July 11, 2025, investigators took two suspects into custody in connection with the homicide and the robbery. The men—identified in local reports as 22-year-old Angelo Smith and 19-year-old James Cortez—were booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on homicide and robbery charges tied to the May 16 shooting of Ignacio “Nacho” Garcia, 60. Both were being held as their cases moved forward in court.
From the first frantic response to the nighttime gunfire through the summer arrests, the case of Ignacio “Nacho” Garcia, 60, traced a line through Stockton’s struggle with violence against vendors. Early accounts underscored that masked robbers confronted him on a familiar route near California and Third streets; later updates detailed the methodical steps detectives took to identify and arrest the alleged perpetrators. Listings on memorial sites recorded his name and date, folding him into the somber tally of lives lost to gun violence in the city.
