Not Just a Number : Police Clerk Is Killed by Boyfriend After Attempts to Leave Him

As a clerk at the Rampart Division, the busiest police station in Los Angeles, Carmen Garcia would often spend her entire shift filing crime reports.

Last week, five miles away at the Northeast Division, another clerk filed crime report 9511-04453: the case of the murder of Carmen Garcia, 32, shot to death by her estranged boyfriend.

For several months, Garcia had been trying to break up with Jamie De La Paz, 41, her live-in boyfriend of six years.

“She wanted him to leave, but he wouldn’t leave,” said her sister-in-law, Annabelle Garcia. “So she tried to get away and he wouldn’t let her.”

On Jan. 4, Garcia tried to get away one last time. She left her apartment in the Rampart area west of downtown and went to her sister’s house near Eagle Rock.

The next day, shortly before 11 a.m., De La Paz showed up. Apparently, there was no argument. De La Paz simply took out a handgun and fatally shot Garcia. He then shot himself in the head and died an hour later.

Detectives at Northeast Division labeled it a murder-suicide. Case closed. Garcia will be buried today.

On Tuesday, at the close of the Los Angeles City Council meeting, Councilwoman Laura Chick adjourned the session in memory of Garcia. When she did, Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg gasped, and was visibly shaken when Chick said that Garcia was a victim of domestic violence.

In her visits to the Rampart station, which is in her district, Goldberg had come to know Garcia.

“I really didn’t know her that well,” Goldberg said, “but she was so warm it felt like we were old friends. And it wasn’t because I was a council member. She was like that to everybody.”

Ironically, shortly after learning of Garcia’s death Monday, Chick chaired a meeting of the council’s public safety committee on the subject of domestic violence.

“The whole time I was talking about the issue, I was thinking about this young woman,” Chick said. “Did she try to get help and assistance? There are thousands of women who don’t seek help and try to deal with it themselves. Many of them end up dead. How frustrating it is.”

Garcia did try to get help.

On Aug. 1 she filed a complaint at the Rampart station against De La Paz, who she said had threatened to kill her. He was arrested and charged with making terrorists threats. The city attorney’s office lowered the charges to a misdemeanor, but Garcia refused to testify. As a result, De La Paz spent only a day in jail.

“One more domestic violence disaster in America,” said Ramparts Capt. Nick Salicos. “Law enforcement attempts to intervene and so many times the victim doesn’t follow through.

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At the time of De La Paz’s arrest, a one-week restraining order was issued. After that, it was incumbent on Garcia to go to court if she wanted to make the restraining order permanent. She didn’t, and the two got back together.

A little more then five months later, the threat became reality.

Carmen Garcia was born in the Philippines. At age 11, her family moved to Los Angeles, and Carmen went on to graduate from Hollywood High School. With the help of her sister-in-law, an executive secretary with the city, she got a city job and then transferred to the Police Department as a clerk-typist in 1991.

Garcia raised two children--a boy, Bo, 11, and a girl Shaina, 8--mostly by herself. Her first marriage ended in divorce. Family members are caring for them.

While Garcia and De la Paz, also a native of Manila, had their problems, there was no evidence of physical abuse, her sister-in-law said.

“I thought I knew him,” she said. “I guess I was wrong.”

At the Rampart station, the verdict on Carmen Garcia was unanimous.

“So bright and cheerful,” said Officer Gregory Morton.

Added Salicos: “In this day and age when everyone is complaining, she never had a harsh word, never complained.”