Tragic timing takes life

Bright future gone when man walks outside home, hit by stray bullet

The stray bullet that killed Francisco Martinez went through a neighbor's mailbox first.CLIFFORD OTO/The Record

STOCKTON - Paco Martinez had a bright future as an electrician. Despite growing up in a neighborhood besieged by gun and gang violence, the 21-year-old Stockton native would have none of it.

He had completed San Joaquin Delta College's rigorous general electrician certification program and recently earned his certification. He had his second-round job interview scheduled this week with Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the same week as his funeral.

Francisco "Paco" Garcia Martinez, the third of four brothers who lost their father in June, was the victim of a stray bullet that crushed into his chest during the minute or so he walked outside his south Stockton home. That was around 7:30 p.m. March 10, and he was just going to check out a friend's car.

Stockton police say Martinez was an unintended victim, hit by a single gunshot. It was one of more than a half-dozen shots fired from the corner of Anne and East Eighth streets by an unknown shooter apparently toward a house across the wide street from the Martinez home, according to what the family has learned.

"He just walked outside. He wasn't even out there for two minutes," older brother Alfonso Martinez said Friday. "He grabbed his chest and laid himself down."

The youngest Martinez brother, Jesus, 15, witnessed what happened to his brother. Before the bullet struck Martinez, it went completely through a mailbox. A neighbor who is a nurse ran over to apply pressure on Martinez's chest until paramedics arrived. Police reported that Martinez died after being taken to a hospital.

Alfonso Martinez described Paco as shy, a good student who graduated from nearby Merlo Institute of Environmental Technology high school, went straight off to Delta College and held down a part-time job to help the family with expenses.

He was particularly attentive to his mother, Lourdes, and baby brother Jesus following the death of the family patriarch, also named Alfonso Martinez. He regularly collected Sunday offerings at St. Linus Catholic Church, and he and his mother would often bring the sacramental bread and wine up to the altar during Mass.

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Tragic timing takes life