LAWRENCE — Ballistic tests will be done to determine if a handgun found in the car of Pablo Acosta was the weapon used in the city's ninth murder this year.

Acosta, 33, of 248 Salem St., was arrested after he led police on a short pursuit before crashing off Currant Hill Road in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery about 1:40 a.m. Sunday.

Police said he is a suspect in the fatal shooting earlier in the morning of Yamil Garcia, 21, of 16 Springfield St.

Garcia was found bleeding to death in the parking lot of a Broadway 7-Eleven. He was shot in the head and chest and died in Lawrence General Hospital, police said.

Acosta has not been charged in connection with the shooting, but was ordered held without bail yesterday on a parole warrant out of New York state, where he violated the terms of his parole after a conviction on drug offenses.

Yesterday, as members of Garcia's family looked on, Acosta was allowed to remain hidden from view behind the door to the holding cell area behind the prisoners dock in Lawrence District Court.

Judge Kevin Gaffney also granted a motion by Acosta's court-appointed lawyer, Pamela Saia-Rogers, to impound the police booking photo, arguing that after reading the police report, it was her opinion that identification would be a major issue in the case.

Acosta was charged with speeding, failure to stop for a police officer and illegal possession of a handgun, a .40-caliber, semiautomatic pistol recovered from the floor on the driver's side of Acosta's Chrysler Pacifica, near the brake pedal.

Five spent shell casings found at the murder scene in the parking lot of the store at 360 Broadway matched the caliber of the handgun taken from Acosta's car, police said.

In documents filed in court, Officer Christopher Bussey, who took Acosta out of the car at gunpoint, noted the odor of "burnt gunpowder" inside the car.

Gaffney also ordered Acosta held on $500,000 cash bail on the charges stemming from the pursuit.

Gaffney ordered Acosta to return to court Dec. 1.