Jose Garcia

Date: July 1992

24-year-old Jose "Kiko" Garcia was shot and killed by an undercover police officer in the lobby of a Washington Heights apartment building. Police claimed that two officers in an unmarked car chased Garcia because they saw him pulling his jacket over his waist, as if to conceal a weapon. They also said that they recovered a fully-loaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver from Garcia and claimed that he fought with Officer Michael O'Keefe after the officer followed him into a building on 162nd Street. Witnesses claimed that officers pushed Garcia into the building, beat him, and then shot him three times.

The incident led to a violent demonstration where furious residents set fires in the street, overturned a car, and threw various objects from apartment windows.