Police say the teens had been handling guns and drinking inside a Columbia Borough home before Wilfredo Garcia was fatally shot. Four other people face charges tied to the weapons, alcohol or what happened afterward.
COLUMBIA, PA — A teenager accused of fatally shooting 17-year-old Wilfredo Garcia while handling a loaded handgun inside a Columbia Borough residence will have his homicide case move forward in Lancaster County court.
District Judge Miles Bixler ruled Sept. 1 that prosecutors presented sufficient evidence for the case against Jose Manuel Lopez III to proceed to the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas. Lopez faces third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, possession of a firearm by a minor and three counts of recklessly endangering another person.
Three other defendants charged in connection with the July 18 shooting waived their cases to county court that same day.
Teenagers were handling guns before fatal shooting
Garcia was killed inside his mother’s residence in the 900 block of Plane Street on the evening of July 18…