Teen Indicted for Northside Drive-by Shooting

SAN ANGELO — A San Angelo teen has been indicted for a shooting that took place at 19th Street and Brown Street back in August as we reported first.

According to court documents, 18-year-old Andrew Jacob Garza has been indicted by a Tom Green County grand jury for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon for a shooting on August 3, 2023, when San Angelo Police were dispatched to the intersection of 19th Street and Brown Street for a reported shooting. Officers arrived and located a vehicle that had sustained significant damage from gunfire including a busted rear window.

The driver of the vehicle told officers that she had gone to Nueva Vista Apartments, located at 2401 Lillie Street and had picked up three men and a woman. The witness had gotten into the passenger seat of the vehicle and allowed one of the men to drive. The group drove south on Brown Street and stopped at the stop sign at the 19th Street and Brown Street intersection.

Then, the witness said that another vehicle was traveling west on 19th Street and turned north onto Brown Street. The vehicle drove very slowly past the group. The witness said that the vehicle looked to be full of people but did not see how many people were inside and could not provide a description of who was in the vehicle.

The other vehicle drove past the group, stopped, then started shooting the witness’s vehicle with a gun. The witness and the group were trying to get away and did not see who was shooting at them. The man who was driving the witness’s vehicle was struck by gunfire and was taken to the emergency department at Shannon to have a bullet removed from the back of his head.

The gunshot victim was interviewed and said that he saw Greg Garza and Zachary Garza as the two individuals in the passenger vehicle who opened fire on him and the group. The Garzas were arrested but when the victim was discharged from the hospital, he called the investigator and said that he made a mistake, and that Andrew Garza and Tayden Thibodeaux were the two who shot him.  The Garzas were then released and had their charges withdrawn.

Detectives did a sweep of the area where the shooting took place and located a camera near the intersection. The video from the camera was reviewed and it showed a dark colored BMW passenger vehicle drive past the witness’s vehicle. This vehicle was located driving north bound on the 2400 block of Lillie Street.

The officer that stopped the dark colored BMW said that he identified the driver as Thibodeaux and the passenger has Garza. The vehicle matched that of the one in the video footage and that Garza was wearing clothing that matched what was worn by the passenger who exited the BMW at the incident location and began shooting the witness’s vehicle.

Garza was interviewed and stated he was swimming at the low water crossing on Ben Ficklin Road and was driving home with Thibodeaux. He also denied any involvement in the shooting.

Garza was arrested on August 7, 2023, and is currently an inmate in the Tom Green County Jail being held on $1,200,000 bond. Garza’s co-defendant, Thibodeaux, as listed on the indictment, was arrested and released for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon and has not been indicted as of October 2023.