An arrest has been made in the fatal shooting of a Palmerton man in Whitehall Township this past weekend.

District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan and Whitehall Police Chief Michael Marks announced an arrest in a homicide investigation on Wednesday.

Christian Martinez-Ramos, 35, of Allentown, is charged with criminal homicide and aggravated assault – knowingly or recklessly extreme indifference, both felonies of the first degree; and misdemeanor charges of possess instruments of crime/weapon, criminal mischief- tampering with property and recklessly endangering another person.

Martinez-Ramos was arraigned Wednesday morning and is in Lehigh County Jail with no bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. Dec. 17.

Around 6:03 p.m. Dec. 7, Whitehall Township Police responded to a shooting in the parking lot of Loco Hot Deals located at 1155 MacArthur Road.

Officers found 46-year-old Hector Garcia Gomez of Palmerton with multiple gunshot wounds to his abdomen. He was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest. Garcia Gomez succumbed to his injuries and was later pronounced dead.

Garcia Gomez died of multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and his death was ruled a homicide by the Lehigh County coroner.

Video surveillance showed Garcia Gomez’s vehicle arriving at the store. While Garcia Gomez’s wife stayed inside the car, Garcia Gomez went into the store for several minutes as the suspect’s vehicle pulled into the parking lot.

As Garcia Gomez leaves the store and begins to get inside his car, the suspect vehicle parks behind him and multiple gunshots are fired at Garcia Gomez from inside the suspect vehicle.

The suspect vehicle fled the scene, but the license plate on the vehicle was obtained by a license plate reader and came back to a different vehicle owned by Martinez-Ramos.

The investigation revealed that Garcia Gomez had a previous disturbance involving Martinez-Ramos that resulted in two physical fights and threats made via text messages and phone calls.

Text messages discovered later indicate that Martinez-Ramos texted a third party approximately 30 minutes after the shooting saying he intended to “burn the car and tell the owner it was reported stolen.”

The same third party with whom Martinez-Ramos texted told investigators that Martinez-Ramos admitted that he shot Garcia Gomez.

This case was investigated by Whitehall Police Detective Lindsay Yetter, Lehigh County Homicide Task Force Detectives James Bruchak, Timothy Salgado and Amaury Almonte and will be prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney James A. Augustine.

Martinez-Ramos, is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.