A rookie LAPD officer who allegedly shot a 23-year-old man to death following a fight in Pomona fled to Texas with the help of his father, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit released Thursday.
Henry Solis, 27, is suspected of killing Salome Rodriguez Jr. early March 13 after a physical altercation near a nightclub.
While authorities continued to search for him, Solis was fired by Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck on Tuesday, a day after Pomona police named the police officer as a suspect.
An affidavit signed Thursday by FBI Special Agent Scott Garriola stated that Solis was charged with murder Tuesday in an arrest warrant issued by the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Items left by Solis at the crime scene allowed Pomona detectives to identify him as the gunman, according to the affidavit.
Soon after the shooting, Solis made statements that incriminated himself and said that he would never been seen again, Garriola wrote, citing interviews with family members, friends and witnesses.
On the day of the shooting, Henry Solis called his father, Victor Solis, in Lancaster, and then the older man left the home in a hurry, Garriola wrote.
The next day, Saturday, Victor Solis’ truck was spotted at relatives’ home in El Paso, Texas, and FBI agents interviewed him there two days later.
Victor Solis told the FBI he drove his son to the bus station in El Paso and dropped him off. He did not know where his son had gone, he told agents.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Officer asked for the FBI’s help finding and returning Solis to L.A.
About noon Thursday, in response to Garriola’s affidavit, a U.S. District Court magistrate issued a federal arrest warrant charging Henry Solis with fleeing to avoid prosecution for murder.
Solis was a U.S. Marine before joining the LAPD in June, the Los Angeles Times reported. He worked for the Devonshire Division in Northridge.
His actions were “most likely fueled by alcohol,” Beck said Tuesday.