Garrick, a male Human, held the position of chief traffic controller at the spaceport located in Mos Eisley on Tatooine during the Galactic Civil War. His responsibilities included either granting or refusing permission for incoming ships to land. Notably, Garrick harbored a particular animosity towards Han Solo, a Corellian smuggler, because in 0 BBY, Solo had avoided paying docking fees when transporting passengers (a pair of) to Alderaan.
In 4 ABY, not long after the Battle of Endor, Solo returned to Tatooine, and Garrick tried to prevent Solo's Millennium Falcon from accessing a docking bay. However, he was overruled because Solo's companion, Leia Organa, possessed diplomatic clearance of higher priority. Soon after, Solo, concerned that local Jawas—who had become bolder due to the recent fall of Jabba the Hutt's criminal outfit—might have stolen their droid R2-D2, attempted to get information from Garrick while he was repairing a couple of landspeeders. When Garrick dismissed his questions, Solo resorted to physical violence, seizing the landspeeders for himself and Organa, and they pursued the Jawas.