A second teenage boy was arrested Wednesday in a shooting that fatally wounded two young men early in a neighborhood near Palomar College in San Marcos last month.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department announced the arrest of the 15-year-old alongside new details of what may have transpired before the shooting on the afternoon of Jan. 4 that left Jesus Garcia, 19, and a friend of Garcia's, 20-year-old Nicholas Tiefer, in the 1300 block of West Borden Road in San Marcos.
"At this stage of the investigation, it appears the suspects did not know the victims," the lieutenant said Wednesday afternoon. "However, we believe the reason for (their) meeting (the victims) was for the illegal sale of vape products."
The 15-year-old was taken into custody at his Oceanside home shortly after 7 a.m. for his alleged role in the slayings. On Tuesday, authorities arrested a 17-year-old boy in Riverside, Lt. Chris Steffen said. The suspects' names have been withheld because they are minors.
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On the day of the shooting, deputies responding to a report of an assault found Garcia on the ground near a park entrance with gunshot trauma to his upper body, Steffen said. The patrol personnel discovered Tiefer in a nearby parked vehicle, suffering from a wound to his neck.
Paramedics took the victims to a hospital, where Garcia, a San Marcos resident, was pronounced dead that evening. Tiefer, who lived in Vista, died three days later.
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Tiefer was a former football standout at San Marcos High School. His family says he was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time last Wednesday afternoon on West Borden Road. Garcia was a fellow San Marcos High grad who, like his friend Nick, enjoyed playing sports.
Tiefer's father told NBC 7 his 20-year-old son left home that morning and he never imagined their routine goodbye would be the final words they'd say to each other. His family learned hours later that Tiefer had been airlifted to the hospital, and they stayed by his side for four days as he fought for his life.
“I’ve been praying and shaking, physically ill, I've got to calm down," Rick Tiefer said.
Investigators are still working to determine what led to the shooting but said it appears the meet-up was for the sale of vape products.
It is illegal in California for retailers to sell tobacco to anyone under 21. In November, voters approved a ban that prohibits flavored cigarettes and vaping cartridges, which supporters said were too easy for teens to obtain.
The ban doesn’t make it a crime to possess the products, but retailers who sell them could be fined up to $250. In addition to menthol and other flavored cigarettes, the ban prohibits sale of flavored tobacco for vape pens, tank-based systems and chewing tobacco, with exceptions made for hookahs, some cigars and loose-leaf tobacco.
The suspects have been booked into East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility in Otay Mesa on suspicion of murder.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330/after hours at (858) 565-5200. You can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
