Crime

FAIRFIELD (AP) ― The family of a 22-year-old Fairfield city councilman plans to allow doctors to take him off life support Wednesday as public officials and residents here struggle to understand why someone shot the popular young politician.

The Fairfield City Council canceled its weekly meeting Tuesday night and held a public vigil in honor of Councilman Matt Garcia, who was declared brain dead at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek following Monday night's shooting.

The gunman, who got out of a mid-90s, American model sedan and fired several shots at Garcia as he was speaking with a friend outside her house, remained at large. One of the shots struck Garcia in the back of the head, and the suspect then got back in his car and fled.

Authorities said they were trying to determine a motive in the shooting, whether Garcia was the intended target and if so, whether it had anything to do with his political position.

"We have no motive, no suspects," Fairfield Police Chief Kenton Rainey said. "We are very, very early in our investigation." 

Fairfield Police say it appears that Matt Garcia may have seen the gunman and was running away from him when he was fatally shot in the back of the head.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Garcia's assailant. Located about halfway between Oakland and Sacramento, Fairfield, population 105,000, is the Solano County seat and best known as the home of Travis Air Force base and the headquarters for the Jelly Belly jelly bean company. 

Last week we had lunch with John McCain.  John McCain came up to Councilman Garcia, shook his hand and said 'You are the vision for the future.'  The future did not include getting gunned down when you're 22-years-old," fellow Councilmen Chuck Timm said.

Several hundred people, many of them weeping, showed up at Tuesday night's vigil outside City Hall. Garcia's grandmother, Chris Garcia, said she could tell by the size of the crowd that "he touched your lives as much as he touched mine."

Mayor Harry Price said that when Garcia was in sixth grade, he told people he wanted to be mayor of Fairfield when he grew up.

Price then named the mortally wounded councilman honorary mayor and asked the crowd to join him in shouting, "Honorary Mayor of Fairfield, Matt Garcia."

One of the youngest elected officials in California, Garcia was just 21 when he was sworn in last fall as a councilman. He vowed to focus on crime prevention, economic development, community growth and keeping Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, according to his campaign Web site.

Garcia said his father had spent time in prison, used drugs and been involved with gangs, and he credited his grandmother and other family members from keeping him from a similar fate.

"I know what drugs and being a gang member can do to you..." he told Vacaville's The Reporter newspaper last year. "I chose not to go that direction."

Garcia was vice president of his senior class in high school, according to his campaign web site. He attended classes at Solano Community College in Fairfield after graduation and was working at a bank in Fairfield when he was elected to the council.

Fairfield officials opened up the City Council's chambers Tuesday morning for colleagues, friends and supporters of Garcia's seeking grief counseling.

Gary Falati, a former Fairfield mayor and mentor of Garcia's, said he had plans to meet Garcia for coffee on Tuesday. Instead, Falati was anxiously waiting for updates on the young councilman's condition.

"It just makes me sick," Falati told the Daily Republic newspaper in Fairfield.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)