UISD driver dead: Victim shot outside mother-in-law’s home
By VICENTE RANGEL, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
06/06/2006
NUEVO LAREDO — A Laredo school bus driver is the latest victim in the Sister City’s continuing crime wave, drawing renewed concerns over the violence that has wracked Nuevo Laredo for two years.Juan de Dios Garcia, 30, had just parked in front of his mother-in-law’s home near the intersection of Tomás F. de la Garza and Piedras Negras streets at about 9 p.m. Sunday when unknown assailants opened fire, killing the man on the spot.
Garcia’s wife, Olivia, was inside the house with the couple’s two children at the time of the attack. They were not injured.
Police said Mrs. Garcia reported that the attackers were in a white compact car that was traveling in the opposite direction from Garcia. The white car stopped, virtually hood to hood with the Envoy, and two or three men jumped out, shooting at Garcia. The attackers then got back in their car and took off.
Garcia was alone in his 2005 Envoy when his killers opened fire. He was shot several times in the head.
State police were sent to the scene after C-4, the city’s emergency headquarters, received word of gunshots in the Colonia Las Torres. Officers arrived to find Garcia slumped over the steering wheel; his Envoy had several bullet holes in the windshield.
Investigators recovered nine 9-mm shell casings as well as 13 .45-caliber casings at the scene.
Garcia worked with the United Independent School District Transportation Department for five years.
“He was a gentleman we could always count on,” said Joe Aranda, UISD director of transportation. “He was a good employee.”
Aranda said Garcia was dependable and committed to his work. He will be sorely missed, he said.
The loss has hit the department doubly hard, Aranda said, because Garcia’s wife also works there.
(LMT Staff Writer Clay Reddick contributed to this report.)