Philadelphia family demands answers a year after fatal police shooting in Fairhill: "It's an outrage"

It's been nearly a year since a deadly police shooting shook Philadelphia's Fairhill neighborhood.

On Thursday, the family of Bruce "Angel" Garcia took their fight for justice straight to the district attorney's office. They say for the past 12 months, a piece of them has been missing.

"It feels like someone is throwing alcohol on an open wound," said Genesis Garcia, who is Angel's sister. 

On May 21, 2025, police say two Philadelphia Police officers saw Garcia holding a black bag near Front and Somerset streets in North Philly.

Police say officers Edward Lane and Matthew Galdo tried to stop him near Mutter Street when a struggle began. Police say Garcia grabbed a gun inside his bag and fired. That's when the officers fired their weapons and shot him. Garcia died at a nearby hospital.

"It's an outrage. What they did to my little brother, not only was it overkill, it forfeits anything, any statement they ever made of claiming him as a threat," Garcia's brother, Jonathan Ramos, said.

Police say the officers body cameras captured "portions of the incident" but were knocked off during the struggle. Police say other cameras from the scene depict the shooting, along with body camera video from another officer. 

Police said that investigators believe that because Garcia's firearm was inside a bag at the time of discharging, it wasn't able to recoil properly. Because of this, police believe this may have led to a malfunction that caused the bullet to not eject from the chamber.

Garcia's family says they don't believe that, and they're fighting for every video related to the case be released, and they want to see the ballistics report as well.

"If he was guilty of something the evidence would have been out by now," Genesis Garcia said.

"It's ridiculous it's taken almost a year to date for the DA to even meet with this family and for them to run a ballistics report about what actually happened that day," said Talia Giles, with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Police say the two officers involved were placed on administrative duty, but have since returned to full-duty status.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office released a statement Thursday afternoon, saying he met with Garcia's family after they held a press conference outside his office, and he plans to meet with them again in the coming weeks to discuss the investigation.