Police Friday night arrested a man in a fatal shooting that happened Thursday after a car was stolen in the Stapleton area.
Quent Scaggs, 21, was arrested shortly after 7:45 p.m. in Aurora in the death of Aaron Garcia, who died of multiple gunshot wounds after being abducted in a car stolen from the parking lot of the Wal-Mart at Smith Road and Quebec Street, police said.
Lt. Ron Saunier, a Denver police spokesman, said Scaggs, Garcia and the driver of the car all knew one another, adding that the shooting wasn’t a random one.
“This was not a carjacking,” Saunier said.
Saunier said Scaggs had been arrested before in two felony robberies.
Police had arrested one suspect early Friday but determined he was not involved in the carjacking, Denver police Detective Sharon Hahn said. The man is being held on other charges, she said.
Garcia’s body and the stolen Pontiac Grand Prix were left in a nearby alley between Oneida and Newport streets.
The car’s original driver was left behind unhurt at the Wal-Mart, although shots were fired there, police said.
Thursday’s carjacking began near the same Wal-Mart where a woman went for help late Sunday after she was shot while waiting at a nearby red light.
A male motorist was shot Tuesday night in the same area, at Martin Luther King and Central Park boulevards.
Police said they believe the first two shootings were related but that neither is related to Thursday’s night slaying.
The man believed responsible for the Sunday and Tuesday shootings had no apparent motive other than injuring or killing the victims, police said.
“It appears there was no motive in either shooting,” said Saunier. “Each of these were random. The victims did not know the suspect.”
The shootings are being investigated as possible gang initiations, Saunier said. The department’s gang unit and numerous other detectives are investigating, he said.
“We’re taking it very seriously,” Saunier said. “We’ve got someone out there who is victimizing people, and we need to get him stopped.”
The suspect is described as a white or Latino man in his late teens or early 20s, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-10, with a red bandanna or scarf over his face.
In both cases, the suspect did not demand money or attempt to take the cars, Saunier said.
“All we can prove at this point is aggravated first-degree assault,” he said. “We’re trying our hardest to solve them.”
Police on Friday left fliers in the neighborhood warning people about the assaults. Extra police officers were scheduled to patrol the area Friday.
Mike McPhee contributed to this report
