Steven Garcia killed in shooting

Steven Garcia was killed by gunfire in a Thousand Palms home Friday morning. Authorities on the scene took the shooter into custody.

“(Deputies) located the gunman, which was a Hispanic male age 22, and other witnesses in the area,” said Riverside County Sheriff’s Spokesman, Deputy Julio Oseguera. “The gunman and the witnesses were detained for questioning”

As of Monday night, that is all the information the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has released about the incident that led to the death of the 29-year-old Garcia.

Neighbors on Monte Vista Road pointed us to the home where the shooting happened. We briefly spoke with a young woman at the home who said she knew Garcia, and that he was, “A good guy.” But, the woman declined to be interviewed.

Garcia graduated from Palm Springs High School in 2002. His football coach described him as the type of person who would do anything to help the team.

“The kind of guy that goes to work every day, doesn’t complain and gets the job done. The salt of the earth,” former Palm Springs High School football coach, Stephen Fabian, said. “They’re the kind of people that you need on football teams. They’re the people that you need in communities. The people that you need in life.”

Fabian says he saw Garcia around the football program occasionally in the year’s that followed, including when he watched his younger brother Nephi play just a few years ago. Fabian says Garcia’s older brother, Maury, also played football at Palm Springs High School years ago. The news of Steven Garcia’s death came as a shock to his old coach.

“It’s a tragedy,” Fabian said. “It’s a coaches nightmare. It’s a parents nightmare when things like this happen. A phone call comes and you go, darn. You just don’t understand it.”