New Hampshire man arrested – NBC Boston

A man has been arrested in connection with a weekend shooting that left another man dead and two people injured outside a Hindu temple in Lowell, Massachusetts, authorities said Tuesday.

Paul Garcia is suspected of firing into a crowd when a fight broke out outside the Swaminarayan Temple on Middlesex Street early Saturday morning, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and Lowell police. They also identified the man killed as Jose Ortiz, a 43-year-old from Lowell.

Garcia, a 38-year-old from Dover, New Hampshire, was arrested Tuesday at a Lawrence apartment. He is charged with armed assault with intent to murder, assault and unlawful possession of a weapon, officials said. He is also scheduled to be arraigned on murder charges in Lowell District Court on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear whether Garcia had a lawyer who could comment on the allegations.

Lowell police were called to the parking lot about 4:53 a.m. for a shooting and found three people injured, officials said. The other injured people, a 34-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, have since been released from the hospital.

The shooting in the parking lot of a temple on Middlesex Street left one man dead and two other people injured, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Lowell Police Chief Greg Hudon. Follow NBC10 Boston: https://instagram.com/nbc10boston https://tiktok.com/@nbc10boston https://facebook.com/NBC10Boston https://twitter.com/NBC10Boston

They were in the parking lot with two groups of about 30 people who had been partying, drinking and setting off fireworks, officials said. Garcia allegedly opened fire after a physical altercation in which people were shot.

After the shooting, the parking lot was cordoned off and investigators focused on several abandoned cars, alcohol bottles and a pile of clothing. The shooting interrupted a three-day religious celebration for people from a particular village in India. About a thousand people were expected to attend the celebrations and police eventually diverted them around the scene so they could continue with their program.