Published: September 25, 2007 11:01 pm      

Man arrested in parking lot killing case

By Daniel Silliman

dsilliman@news-daily.com



A 17-year-old man, accused of murder, agreed to turn himself in to detectives, last week, but didn’t show up.

That was the second time Clayton County Police detectives came close to arresting Jose Carlos Mendez, the Riverdale teenager also known as “Lagrimas,” which is Spanish for “Tears.”

Mendez was arrested, however, on Saturday, when Clayton County Sheriff’s deputies spotted the car believed to belong to the 17-year-old.

Mendez allegedly shot 20-year-old Indalecio Gallegos at an unofficial NOPI racing event in a Publix Super Market parking on Aug 5. According to witnesses, Mendez, crouching, went up to a 1998 Ford Crown Victoria and fired a single shot into the car, killing the 20-year-old while he sat at the steering wheel.

Two people in the 7535 Ga. Highway 85 parking lot said they saw the teen with the nickel-plated pistol. Other witnesses told police he was a Hispanic male, wearing a white tank top and blue jeans, looked like he was 16 or 17, and had very short hair.

Mendez fired the gun, police say, and one .22 bullet hit the 20-year-old in the head.

The crowd of between 100 and 150 people began to scatter from the scene. Mendez scattered with them, according to the witnesses.

He walked away from the black Crown Victoria, got into the passenger seat of a silver-colored Honda Civic, and leaned the seat way back, “like he didn’t want to be seen,” the witnesses told police.

The police found Mendez in a red Ford Taurus on Treasure Drive, but the teen gave the officers his father’s name, said he’d never heard of the person they were looking for, and they let him go.

Two detectives got a phone call, later that night, from one of the witnesses, who had heard they had stopped the 17-year-old. The witness identified Jose Carlos Mendez in a photographic line-up.

A warrant for his arrest was issued in the middle of August. Last week, he spoke with detectives, agreeing to meet with them last Friday night, according to Deputy Chief Tim Robinson.

He didn’t show, but Clayton County Sheriff’s deputies pulled the car over on Saturday, Sept. 22, and arrested Mendez.

Detectives interviewed the murder suspect, but he didn’t say anything, Robinson said, and didn’t confess to the homicide.

The publicly available information linking Mendez to the parking lot shooting is two witness statements and their identifications. The witnesses did not know, though, what the motive for the shooting could be.

Detectives are convinced, Robinson said, that Mendez is the assailant.

His probable cause hearing has not yet been set.