Man killed in car fire at SJ courthouse parking garage ID'd

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A man who died in a car that caught fire Monday in a parking garage across from Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose was 70-year-old Bernard Garcia, according to the county medical examiner's office.

An autopsy has not yet been performed on Garcia's body to determine what caused his death, a medical examiner's office employee said this morning.

Garcia, a San Jose resident, was driving a sedan in the courthouse parking garage Monday morning when his car apparently crashed into a pillar and another car before bursting into flames, San Jose police said.

The crash and fire were reported at 9:17 a.m. Monday on the second floor of the garage in the 100 block of West Hedding Street, across the street from the courthouse and the county's main jail, police said.

Garcia was unable to get out of the car and by the time emergency personnel arrived, he was already dead, his body badly burned, according to San Jose fire officials.

The flames also damaged three other cars near Garcia's, fire officials said.

He may have suffered some kind of medical emergency prior to the crash and his car came to a halt onto a concrete parking stop, fire officials said.

No one else was injured and police and fire officials are continuing to investigate the incident.