A former rookie Los Angeles police officer who allegedly fatally shot a man in Pomona and then fled to Mexico with his father’s help arrived in Southern California after extradition from El Paso Thursday.
Around the time Henry Solis, 27, arrived at Pomona city jail, his father was convicted by a federal jury in Texas in connection with the case. The older man faces up to five years in federal prison for lying to FBI agents.
Henry Solis was arrested in Mexico May 26 after more than two months on the run following the March 13 shooting death of 23-year-old Salome Rodriguez Jr. after a fight near a downtown Pomona nightclub.
Solis allegedly ran after Rodriguez and then shot him multiple times. A warrant was issued May 17 for Solis’ arrest on suspicion of murder.
The FBI had offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Solis, whom Pomona police called armed and dangerous.
Solis was booked into an El Paso jail on May 27. He was released to authorities Thursday morning and was put on a flight back to Southern California, a Pomona Police Department lieutenant said.
News crews were gathered at Ontario International Airport awaiting Solis’ arrival, but he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport and was driven to the Pomona police station, arriving in a dark unmarked car about 2:15 p.m.
Solis was a probationary Los Angeles Police Department officer at the time of Rodriguez’s shooting. He was fired by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck after being named as a suspect in the killing.
Solis’ father, 53-year-old Victor Manuel Solis of Lancaster, was charged with making false statements to El Paso FBI agents about his son’s whereabouts. He told them he had dropped his son off at an El Paso bus station after the pair drove to Texas from Southern California, but border video showed the two crossing into Mexico together.
A federal jury in El Paso convicted Victor Solis, a legal permanent U.S. resident, on Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. He faces up to five years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
Henry Solis grew a beard, remained indoors and did not use a cellphone while he moved from relatives’ home to home in Mexico, an FBI special agent said last week.
He was charged in a federal criminal complaint with flight to avoid prosecution, according to the FBI.
A former U.S. Marine, Solis was arrested in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso.
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