L.A. County homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was looking through pictures of local gang members, and their tattoos, when one particular tattoo caught his eye.
There were Christmas lights and a bowed lamp post, but any similarity to a quaint nativity scene ended with the addition of a liquor store, a helicopter, AKA a chopper, raining bullets from the sky, and a falling body.
The epic, but crude tattoo, sprawling across his chest, was so detailed that Lloyd was immediately reminded of a 2004 shooting outside of a liquor store- a liquor store with Christmas lights, and a bowed lamp post, and a body falling in the same general direction as the victim.
And if that wasn’t incriminating enough, a banner above the murder scene, below his collar bone, read, Rivera Kills, a reference to the gang Rivera-13.
Now, as blatant as the tattoo was, it alone amounted to only a horrible looking attempt at gaining street cred, and circumstantial evidence. What was needed was a confession.
The police picked up the unsuspecting suspect, Anthony Garcia, 25, AKA “Chopper,” on a bogus charge and put him in a cell with who he thought was another gang member.
It didn’t take long for the wired, undercover officer, to get the L.A. Times described, doe eyed, pudgy chested, “gangster“ to proudly spill the beans. Case closed.
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