Garcia
and his partner, Detective Jose L. Castellanos, were working homicide
March 5, 1959, when they got a call that a gunman had gone on a deadly
rampage at an East Los Angeles restaurant and was probably heading for
the home of his estranged wife.

The gunman ambushed the detectives as
they escorted the woman and her uncle to safety, killing Castellanos
instantly. Although Garcia was struck by a shot that "seared across his
eyes," the police artist was able to return fire, killing George J.
Arevalo, 2844 Whittier Blvd.

"We always knew he would do
something like this," Arevalo’s wife said. "He would go crazy every
time he drank. Last March 27 we separated because of his drinking. He
told me when he left he would come back some day and kill the children
and me."

Lying in the hospital, perhaps blinded by a killer’s
gunfire, was the last thing Garcia must have imagined when he began his
career as an artist. Born in El Paso, he graduated from Woodbury
College in 1949 and worked briefly as an editorial cartoonist at a
Seattle newspaper. After a short time with a Los Angeles printing
company, Garcia decided to join the Police Department. He had no idea
of becoming a sketch artist, but the job slowly emerged as department
officials realized his talent for producing drawings from witnesses’
descriptions.

Evidently he was quite talented and in one
demonstration for a magazine story, Garcia produced a sketch of
"Dragnet’s" Joe Friday based on a description given by a woman in the
department’s Research and Planning Office. One of his most successful
drawings was that of Gaylord Hammond, who was being sought in an attempted rape. When Hammond was arrested, officers found that Garcia’s sketch
was virtually identical to Hammond’s mug shot. Garcia also provided
sketches of the nonexistent attackers in the Marie "The Body" McDonald
case.

But all of that was before he was assigned to homicide; before that night in March 1959 unfolded tragically.

That evening, Arevalo, 42, had gone to Bill’s Place, a restaurant at 506 E. 9th St. where his friend Mary Loera was manager.

"He
was drunk," she said. "I told him to get out. He left but returned in a
few minutes with a gun. He aimed it at me, said he was going to kill me
and fired." She fell to the floor, wounded in the arm, as another
customer, Carlos Carranza, wrestled with Arevalo for the gun. Arevalo
broke free, went outside and when Carranza followed, Arevalo shot him
to death.

Police staked out Arevalo’s room on Whittier
Boulevard, and Castellanos and Garcia were sent to the home of his
estranged wife at 716 N. Bonnie Beach. They were escorting the woman
and her uncle, Alex Verdenas, to their police car and planned to take
them somewhere safe when Arevalo ambushed them.

Arevalo shot
Castellanos in the temple, killing him instantly, then fired again, hitting Garcia in
the head and Verdenas in the chest. Garcia, despite being struck in the eyes, killed Arvealo, shooting him once in the head and once in
the chest from 50 feet away, The Times said.

Although his right eye was destroyed, the doctors saved his left eye and after that he wore a eye patch. In November 1959, Garcia was honored with a Purple
Heart during a ceremony in the
City Council Chambers recognizing officers who had been killed or
wounded in the line of duty.

Garcia returned to being a police artist and
published a book of his work, "Portraits of Crime," in 1977. He retired
about 1981 and went to work for a private security firm, but continued doing
sketches, including some of fugitive Nazi Dr. Joseph Mengele. Garcia
died Sept. 27, 1987.