Criminal complaint: Witness said suspect shot man in Port Jefferson 'without hesitation'
A witness told Suffolk County police that the suspect accused of fatally shooting a Shirley man in broad daylight on Main Street in Port Jefferson last week gunned down the victim "without hesitation," according to a criminal complaint.
Joseph Garcia, 19, of Port Jefferson Station, arrested on Saturday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of David Bliss, 25, was ordered held without bail during his arraignment Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip. He entered a not guilty plea and his attorney, George Dunan of Islip Terrace, said Garcia maintains his innocence.
The witness said Garcia shot Bliss in the abdomen with a pistol, according to the complaint.
"Jojo pulled out his black 9 pistol and without hesitation shot that guy," the court papers quoted the witness as saying
The shooting occurred on Wednesday when the two men were in an argument on Main Street near West Broadway, police and village Mayor Margot Garant said this week. Garcia allegedly shot Bliss and drove away. Bliss was taken to St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Garant said on Thursday that Bliss was seen on a video pulling a knife on the suspect shortly before he was shot. The video, linked to the Suffolk police Real Time Crime Center, showed Bliss cowering behind a telephone pole, and then pulling a knife when the suspect approached him, according to Garant. The suspect retrieved a gun from his car, then shot Bliss before driving away, Garant said.
Suffolk police have not released the video.
The last fatal shooting in the four-square-mile village of about 9,700 residents occurred in October 2019, on East Main Street, not far from Wednesday’s shooting.
Port Jefferson resident Theodore Scoville, 50, was fatally shot by the owner of an East Main Street liquor store, police said at the time.
The 2019 shooting was a "clear case of self-defense," police said. Scoville walked into the store and swung a samurai sword at a close distance to the store owner, who then fired a single shot, police said.
