On October 16 at approximately 9:20 p.m., the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team arrived at a home on Lake Charles Lane in Palm Coast to serve an arrest warrant for Aggravated Battery and a search warrant for the residence. The subject, Yairton Garcia, 54, was also the suspect in the October 5 shooting on Northshore Boulevard in Flagler Beach.
Shortly after SWAT and FCSO detectives arrived at the home, they used the public address system, asking everyone to exit the house. Several individuals complied with the orders, but Garcia refused to exit.
The FCSO SWAT team serves a warrant at Lake Charles Lane in Palm Coast.
The FCSO Crisis Negotiation Team responded and spent several hours attempting to communicate with Garcia to encourage him to surrender. However, he would not answer his phone or respond to the announcements made over the PA system. The SWAT team used the Agency’s ICOR Mini-CALIBER® Robot to deliver another phone to Garcia in an attempt to establish communication, but he still refused to communicate.
The ICOR Mini-CALIBER® Robot
Knowing that Garcia was armed, at 12:50 a.m. FCSO utilized the ICOR Robot to search the home and locate him. During the search, he was found deceased on the bathroom floor from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“This is not the outcome we hoped for in this incident. We always strive for a successful resolution,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “Garcia was wanted by Flagler Beach Police for a shooting in Flagler Beach, and family members had told us that he had made comments that he was not going to go to jail. Unfortunately, he chose a different method to end this situation. Had he allowed us to arrest him, he would have had an opportunity to turn his life around, but his decision made the situation irreversible.”
Yairton Garcia (previous Flagler County Jail Mugshot)
Garcia was previously arrested by FCSO in 2023 for False Imprisonment and Domestic Battery, but the case was not prosecuted.
The victim of the October 5 shooting was a Palm Coast man in his 50s. He was shot in the arm and treated at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach. For further details on the shooting investigation, contact the Flagler Beach Police Department.
