Family of murdered Lowell man cheers in court as temple shooting suspect held on no bail

The family of 43-year-old Jose Ortiz, murdered Saturday morning in the parking lot of a Hindu Temple, cheered as a judge ordered his alleged killer held on no bail.

“He doesn’t deserve to be out on the streets. He doesn’t deserve to be walking around while my brother is getting ready to get buried,” said Ortiz’s sister, Sasha Rivera.

38-year-old Paul Garcia of Dover, NH is charged with murder for the shooting death of Jose Ortiz.

He did not show his face in court.

“I wanted to see him but the coward was hiding,” Sasha Rivera said.

Authorities say up to 50 people gathered in the parking lot Saturday morning, hanging out, enjoying fireworks, when gun violence broke out.

“It all happened so quickly,” said Ortiz’s friend, Cory Bergeron.

He tells me Jose was trying to calm things down just before he was killed.

“He was trying to be the peacemaker in this situation, and he had his back turned when the guy took out his gun and started shooting and he didn’t even see it coming,” Bergeron said.

“It was a dumb miscommunication argument; he went over to try and diffuse the situation and that idiot started shooting,” said Kristen Hatch, Ortiz’s sister-in-law.

Outside the courthouse, Jose Ortiz’s heartbroken family still coming to terms with their loss.

“It’s not fair, it’s really not. I don’t think it’s OK at all,” said niece Keishla Acevedo. “My uncle didn’t deserve that. He was such a good guy, always there for everybody.”

Paul Garcia is due back in court on August 22nd.

He will appear back in Lowell District Court on Thursday for a pretrial conference in an unrelated drug case.

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