Richard Garcia Jr., a 30-year-old male of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, was found dead from gunshot wounds in the early morning hours of April 29, 2019, inside a home on the 400 block of Lois Street in Clifton, Colorado. Deputies responded around 3:30 a.m. and discovered two men deceased at the scene, later identified as Garcia and 47-year-old Stephen Summers. Initial reports noted an intensified law-enforcement presence as investigators collected evidence and worked to determine what had happened.
By May 1, authorities announced that the shooting had been ruled a murder-suicide. According to information released at the time, Summers—Garcia’s stepfather—shot Garcia with a shotgun and then turned the weapon on himself. The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office indicated it was an isolated incident and that no suspects were being sought. Details recorded by violence-tracking databases likewise classify the case as domestic-violence murder followed by suicide.
No arrests were made; with the coroner’s ruling and the determination that there was no ongoing threat to the public, the investigation concluded without the search for additional suspects. Garcia’s identity and date of death were confirmed in contemporaneous public records and memorials, which recorded him as 30 years old at the time of his death.
