A 28-year-old man from Kentucky has been arrested for allegedly shooting his girlfriend’s ex-husband after the two men “coincidentally” ran into each other at a Louisville restaurant.
Carlos Garcia-Romero was arrested over the weekend and charged with multiple felonies, including two counts of second-degree assault and one count of first-degree wanton endangerment, according to records reviewed by Law&Crime.
Garcia-Romero is also charged with discharging a firearm or other device on a public road, unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, and first-degree fleeing or evading police.
According to a news release from the Louisville Metro Police Department, officers responded to a shooting report at a restaurant on the 5200 block of New Cut Road near Iroquois Park on Sunday evening. When first responders arrived on the scene, they reported finding an adult male victim with a gunshot wound to his left leg.
Emergency medical personnel took the victim to the University of Louisville Hospital for treatment.
While at the hospital, the victim told police that he knew the shooter, who he identified as “Carlos Garcia” and claimed to be his ex-wife’s boyfriend, according to Louisville ABC affiliate WHAS. Investigators quickly discovered that the suspect was Garcia-Romero.
According to local NBC affiliate WAVE, the victim explained that he met Garcia-Romero by “coincidentally running into him” at a restaurant. The shooting allegedly occurred shortly after the two men encountered each other.
Police reportedly confirmed that Garcia-Romero’s girlfriend and the victim have a child together.
In an interview with investigators, Garcia-Romero allegedly admitted to seeing the victim and pointing a gun at him to scare him, but claimed he never intended to shoot him, WHAS reported.
According to WHAS, the defendant claimed that the gun “accidentally went off” while pointing it at the victim.
Following the shooting, Garcia-Romero allegedly told police that he threw the gun into a dumpster at a nearby gas station.
Garcia-Romero is currently being held at the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections in lieu of a $50,000 bond. He is due in court on August 12 for his arraignment.
According to authorities, the victim’s injuries were not life-threatening.
