Shell casings, video link suspect to murder monitored by transgender groups

Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer on Friday named Derrick Garcia, 25, as the suspect sought in the high-profile slaying of Imer Alvarado, 34, who was gunned down while dressed as a woman on Belmont Avenue in May of 2017.

The case sparked outrage in the transgender community, many of whom felt the slaying may have been a hate crime.

Police found Alvarado lying in the 3400 block of East Belmont in the early morning hours of May 17, 2017, where the victim had been shot. Dyer said shell casings and video evidence led detectives to Garcia, who remains at large.

Officers discovered the shooting after seven gunshots were reported at the crime scene. Alvarado was identified as a man by the Fresno County Coroner’s Office, based on documents such as a birth certificate and a driver’s license, but Dyer said shortly after the murder that Alvarado appeared to be transgender.

The coroner’s decision to identify Alvarado as a man drew criticism from Jess Fitzpatrick, co-chair of Trans-E-Motion, a support, education and advocacy group for transgender people. Fitzpatrick said the community did not know how Alvarado self-identified, but called it “disheartening” that the office concluded the victim was male.

The slaying of Alvarado followed the 2015 murder of Casey, or “K.C.” Haggard, 66, a transgender person who was stabbed and left for dead in central Fresno. Richard Joseph Lopez , arrested in that case, pleaded not guilty earlier this month in that case.

Dyer said police believe Alvarado was working as a prostitute at the time of the murder.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Garcia is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 559-498-7867.

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Shell casings, video link suspect to murder monitored by transgender groups."