Oakland: Arrest made in 2020 killing of 17-year-old boy

Angel Ahilion-Garcia, 23, was arrested in the December 2020 killing of Edgar Pablo-Ramirez, 17, who was allegedly vandalizing a vehicle when he was fatally shot.

OAKLAND — Police have arrested a second suspect in the 2020 killing of a teen boy who was allegedly vandalizing a vehicle belonging to one of the suspect’s family members when he was fatally shot in the thigh.

Angel Ahilion-Garcia, 23, was arrested in late January on charges of murdering Edgar Pablo-Ramirez, 17, and attempting to murder one of Pablo-Ramirez’s friends during the same shooting. Ahilion-Garcia now joins co-defendant Margarito Matias-Calmo, 34, who was charged in early 2021, and ordered to stand trial last year.

Pablo-Ramirez was shot around 4 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2020, and died at a hospital hours later, police said at the time. Police allege the shooters were aiming at Pablo-Ramirez and his friend, but only Pablo-Ramirez was stuck by gunfire.

The motive for the shooting, according to police, was that both victims were using a stick to smash a vehicle belonging to Matias-Calmo’s brother. But the surviving victim had an altercation with Ahilion-Garcia hours before the shooting, according to witness testimony at the preliminary hearing.

The surviving victim — who now lives out of state — testified that he and a woman were drinking beer together earlier that day, when she called Ahilion-Garcia to come pick her up. The woman later told police that Ahilion-Garcia accosted the victim with a gun, asked him where he was from, assaulted him and that she left with Ahilion-Garcia.

Later that night, the surviving victim picked up Pablo-Ramirez and told him the story over some beers. Pablo-Ramirez said he believed he knew who was behind the attack and directed the man to the 1400 block of 28th Avenue in East Oakland, so they could get back at the attacker by damaging his car.

While they were smashing the car, someone fired at them, striking the teen in the thigh. He and the surviving victim drove to Highland Hospital, where Pablo-Ramirez died from his injuries, according to police testimony.

Matias-Calmo and Ahilion-Garcia were identified as suspects relatively quickly, thanks to surveillance footage and a pretext call between the surviving victim and the woman he’d seen earlier that day, which police listened in on. After his arrest, Matias-Calmo at first blamed the shooting entirely on Ahilion-Garcia, but when presented with surveillance footage that contradicted his statement, admitted he had fired at least once, Oakland police Detective Jose Barocio testified.

The surviving victim testified that Pablo-Ramirez was struck by a bullet before climbing into their Jeep to drive away, and surveillance footage suggests Matias-Calmo fired as the vehicle was leaving, and that Ahilion-Garcia fired the fatal shot, according to witness testimony at the hearing. Still, Judge Mark McCannon said there was enough evidence to hold Matias-Calmo to answer on a murder charge, based on the relatively low legal standard for preliminary hearings.

Ahilion-Garcia, who has had an active murder warrant since Jan. 15, 2021, was not arrested until three weeks ago. The jail booking log says he was taken into custody in Oakland but provides no further details.

Both men remain in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and cannot be bailed out. Ahilion-Garcia has still not entered a plea, with his first court hearing postponed due to a lack of a Mam translator. He is due to be formally arraigned on March 15.

Matias-Calmo, meanwhile, is next due in court on March 8. He has pleaded not guilty and is still awaiting a trial date.