The State - News from Dec. 22, 1986
When Michael A. Garcia, 26, was shot in the chest and died as he was driving home, he became the 53rd person to be murdered in Fresno in 1986. That surpassed the previous record of 52, set in 1977, when Fresno and other San Joaquin Valley areas found themselves in the midst of a war between two prison-spawned gangs, Nuestra Familia and the Mexican Mafia. “But this year, we haven’t been able to find any one thing to account for the high murder rate,” Police Chief Max Downs said.
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