Second Man Charged in Blackwood Shooting Death

A second man is under arrest in the shooting death of Lamar Ortiz in Blackwood, and authorities say it all stemmed from a drug deal gone wrong.

Joshua Texidor, 20, of Westampton, is being held on $1 million bail for felony murder and robbery charges. An unidentified 16-year-old was charged earlier with murder and attempted murder in the killing as well.

Texidor and the teen attempted to meet Ortiz for a drug deal, according to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office. They met at Autumn Ridge Apartments on Little Gloucester Road, where Ortiz lived with a roommate.

Police say Texidor and the teen likely intended to rob Ortiz, who walked away from the deal. The teen allegedly shot Ortiz several times; Ortiz was pronounced dead at a hospital an hour later.

An 18-year-old from Marlton also was injured in the shooting with a bullet graze to the head. Authorities aren’t naming him, but say he “was grazed by a bullet during a subsequent struggle for the gun in the car the shooter arrived in.”

Ortiz, who was in the Army and had served recently in Afghanistan, was the subject of a separate investigation into illegal gun sales at the time of his death. Police believe he also fired several shots at a van at Autumn Ridge in April, a case that was open until this week.

Officers reportedly found a trove of pills, several guns and a large amount of cash in Ortiz’s apartment he shared with Daimon Perez. Perez, 21, was arrested this week and charged with illegally trafficking guns in a case not related to Ortiz’s death.