Police Find Car Of LAPD Officer Tied To Pomona Man's Shooting Death
POMONA (CBSLA.com/AP) — Authorities have found the car of rookie LAPD officer Henry Solis, 27, who is considered a person of interest in the shooting death of a Pomona man.
Police in Pomona want to talk to the probationary officer about a fist fight that escalated when 23-year-old Salome Rodriguez Jr. was fatally shot near a bar Friday night. It happened around 3:30 a.m. near Third and Main streets.
Rodriguez later died at a hospital.
LAPD spokesman Cmdr. Andrew Smith says it's too early to comment on whether the officer may have been involved in the death.
Solis has not reported for work since the shooting and has not been answering his cell phone. Solis' Volkswagen Jetta was found abandoned in an alleyway a few blocks from the murder scene.
Meanwhile, CBS2's Louisa Hodge reported from Third and Main where a makeshift memorial was growing for the victim.
Family and friends held hands and stood in a circle.
"We're just hurt. We're just hurt that we lost our son," said Rodriguez' mother, Lydia.
Family said Rodriguez -- known to them as Junior -- was walking back to his car Friday after a night out partying with friends.
Hodge talked to one a family member who believe Rodriguez might have been the victim of mistaken identity.
"Witnesses said Henry Solis got into an altercation earlier," said his aunt Aracely Monlina, "Then I guess he confused Junior with that person, or something and confronted Junior. Junior said, 'It's not me, it's not me.'"
Rodriguez was the oldest son of six children. Family told Hodge they looked to him for protection.
The deceased and his family are Catholic missionaries. On Sunday, a church service was held in his honor, they then held the vigil.
"Why run?" Monlina wanted to say to Solis, "We know you did it, we know it's you. Turn yourself in. Explain to the family why, what happened, why him? Why [shoot him] five times? Just why?"
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