Key witness in Pete Garcia case had bad feeling at house party before shooting

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A key witness and childhood friend of Pete Garcia had a bad feeling the second he introduced his friends to the defendant at a house party in 2017.

"And I noticed he went to shake like all the guys' hands in my group and they did like a different type of handshakes, so I was like, 'there's a problem here,'" he said.

The judge is not allowing us to identify the witness. He was also a victim but survived the horrific event.

He was hit by bullet fragments the night Robby Hernandez was shot and killed.

Police said they pulled up to a chaotic scene of about 50 people trying to leave and injured victims scattered around different parts of the culdesac.

"One of the subjects had been struck once, he was still conscious and breathing, however, was in extreme pain and was unable to give any information whatsoever," says Selma Police Officer Lance Pearce. "He was in the roadway next to the driver's side of the vehicle with one of the officer's being tended to."

Hernandez told his friends he wanted to leave the party, but they felt he was paranoid. As he walked away, a bystander said he had tears in his eyes. Garcia and several others followed.

Then the witness described what happened next when he said he glanced up to see the suspect holding his girlfriend's hand with a gun in the other one.

"And I'm like stunned, I don't even move," the witness said. "I'm stuck there just staring, and the next thing you know, I just see flashes."

When the witness was asked if he was sure the gunman was Pete Garcia, he said he was positive.

Later, Garcia was held to answer on all counts. His bail remains at $1.7 million.