In the early morning hours of August 24, 2023, a 27-year-old man named Larry Thomas was shot and killed in Washington, D.C.. The incident occurred around 4:37 a.m. in the 3600 block of 16th Street, Northwest, where officers from the Metropolitan Police Department responded to reports of gunshots.. Upon arrival, they discovered Thomas with gunshot wounds..
Despite the efforts of emergency services, he was pronounced dead at the scene..
Thomas, a resident of Triangle, Virginia, was a popular employee at the Yard House sports bar in Chinatown.. After finishing his shift on the evening of August 23rd, he went out for drinks.. Security camera footage from a bar showed Thomas interacting with the man later identified as a suspect, at one point giving him a cigarette in a stairwell.. The two men left the bar separately but were later seen on camera at an apartment building where the interaction became more heated.. The suspect appeared agitated while Thomas seemed calm..
The investigation, aided by security footage, led police to identify two suspects: 44-year-old Emerita Garcia and her son, Jason Vasquez Paneda.. Police allege that after a verbal and physical altercation between Thomas and Paneda outside an apartment building, Garcia provided her son with a gun from her bag.. Paneda then allegedly followed Thomas to a parking lot and shot him.. A witness reported hearing the suspect shouting and then three gunshots..
On September 7, 2023, Emerita Garcia, also identified in some reports as Amorita Paneda Garcia, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while armed.. Prosecutors argue that she aided and abetted her son by giving him the murder weapon and helping him flee the scene.. As of the latest available reports, Jason Vasquez Paneda had been identified as a suspect but was not yet in custody.. The motive for the shooting remained unclear..
