Dennis RomeroUPDATE at 1:34 p.m. Monday, March 16, 2015: Pomona police issued a warrant for the officer's arrest. They describe him as “armed and dangerous.” See more at the bottom.
They located his car, but Los Angeles police rookie officer Henry Solis had yet to be found overnight after he was named by authorities as a person of interest in the weekend shooting death of 23-year-old Salome Rodriguez, Jr. of Ontario.
The probationary cop, 27, was wanted for questioning in the homicide at Third and Main Streets that was reported at 3:29 a.m. Friday at Third and Main streets in Pomona, local police said.
Investigators believe some kind of “physical altercation” between shooter and victim took place before Rodriguez was struck in the “lower torso” by multiple rounds, according to a Pomona Police Department statement.
Solis was off-duty at the time.
Some news reports cast some doubt over the police storyline that the suspect and Rodriguez might have argued or fought at a nearby bar, Vive Tequila Lounge and Nightclub, before the attack.
Those reports offered up the theory that this was an instance of mistaken identity—that the shooter and Rodriguez never met before the shooting in a nearby parking lot.
On Sunday, police said. Solis' 2013 Volkswagen Jetta was located about four blocks from the violence.
Cops seem to think Solis is on-the-run. According to the Pomona department's statement:
Credit: Solome Rodriguez, Jr. via GoFundMe
Solis’ whereabouts is unknown, and we have reason to believe that he knows the police are looking to talk with him.
Henry Solis is a probationary Los Angeles Police Officer, who was off-duty when this incident occurred has failed to report to work since the murder took place. The Los Angeles Police Department is assisting Pomona Police investigators in locating him.
Rodriguez's family, members of which told reporters that the young man was not a troublemaker, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his funeral.
“My son had a good heart,” his mother told ABC Eyewitness News. “A cop? Why would a cop do that if you trust a cop?”
Another LAPD officer was taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border Saturday night after a person was found in the trunk of a California-bound vehicle the law enforcer was driving, according to multiple reports.
UPDATE at 1:34 p.m. Monday, March 16, 2015: Pomona police have issued an arrest warrant for Solis.
In a statement today the department said the cop might be driving a 1992 brown or tan Ford pick-up with license plate number 4J79703. Pomona police stated:
Suspect Solis is a police officer and should be considered armed and dangerous. The suspect knows he is wanted, and that police are actively searching for him. It is a felony for any person to harbor, conceal or aid a fugitive in an effort to avoid or escape arrest.
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