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Crime Aug 10, 2022
| Image courtesy of the city of Monterey Park
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Authorities Wednesday announced arrests in the killing of an off-duty Monterey Park Police Department officer who was gunned down in the parking lot of a Downey gym.
“Arrests have been made,” Downey Police Captain Scott Loughner told City News Service.
Loughner declined to release details of the arrests but said a 2 p.m. news conference was planned at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, funeral arrangements were still pending Wednesday for Officer Gardiel Solorio, a 26-year-old rookie just weeks out of the academy, who was identified Tuesday as the victim of what MPPD Chief Kelly Gordon called “a senseless act of violence.”
The shooting was reported about 3:30 p.m. Monday in the 12700 block of Lakewood Boulevard, near the Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway, just outside an LA Fitness gym.
Solorio was found unresponsive in the seat of his car and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Downey police.
Authorities did not release a description of a possible suspect or suspects in the killing, and there was no word on a possible motive for the slaying, police said.
Gordon said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference that Solorio, who grew up in Bell Gardens and graduated from Cal State Los Angeles with a degree in criminal justice, joined the department as a recruit in January, and had just graduated from the sheriff’s training academy on July 22 before beginning his field training on July 25.
“Although his time with (the department) was very short, we all knew from the moment we met him that he had the heart of service and was going to be a great officer,” Gordon said.
“And I could tell that from the moment he walked in and did our first introductions in my office. The family and department are grieving right now, and this is an especially difficult tragedy. It’s a senseless act of violence. He was only 26 years old. I don’t know about all of you, but I have children that age. So to me, this is particularly difficult.”
Gordon added that training staff at the sheriff’s academy told her Solorio was “hard-working, dedicated and took every aspect of training seriously,” and that he was family oriented.
“The `why’ in the biography he wrote was to be a good role model for his nephews, and he really wanted to make an impact on the community,” Gordon said. “His classmates shared that Officer Solorio had all the characteristics of a great officer — he was humble, dedicated, selfless and hard-working, but even a better person. He brought laughter and joy to many of us.”
Events leading up to the shooting were under investigation. Police were believed to be reviewing surveillance video from the shopping center parking lot.
“We can’t release too much, we are definitely looking for a suspect right now. There might be multiple suspects,” Loughner said late Monday.
A solemn procession involving officers from the Downey and Monterey Park police departments and Downey Fire Department escorted Solorio’s body to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office on Monday night.
Solorio is survived by his parents, brothers, sisters and fiancée.
“It’s a tremendous loss. It’s a loss of life,” Gordon said. “In law enforcement, but especially in the Monterey Park Police Department, we’re a family. That’s the bottom line. We have worked very hard to build a culture within our department that we take care of each other. This is a tragedy. This is a tragedy for his family, but this is a tragedy for the Monterey Park Police Department as well.”
A man who said he knew Solorio from the LA Fitness gym told KNX radio that the officer “was a wonderful guy. It’s so sad.”
“He was the most humble guy I’ve ever seen,” the man told the station. “Right now my heart’s broken.”
On Wednesday morning, the flag at the Monterey Park Police Department was flying at half-staff and the department had received numerous floral arrangements for the fallen officer.
On a GoFundMe page established to help cover expenses for the family to attend his funeral, Solorio’s sister-in-law, Wanda Marie Lane Solorio, wrote that it was his “lifelong dream” to be a police officer.
“His dream of becoming a police officer after years of hard work and dedication had finally come to fruition when life was abruptly taken away due to a senseless act of violence,” she wrote. “He was taken from his family way too soon. He was and has always been a true American success story.”
She said Solorio was the youngest of 13 children, and the family is hoping to raise money so all of his brothers and sisters can attend his funeral.
As of Wednesday morning, the family had raised more than $10,500.
“(He) was a first-generation college graduate, and the first and his family to become police office and brother in law enforcement,” Wanda Marie Lane Solorio wrote.
Anyone with additional information about the shooting was encouraged to call Det. Ron Gee at 562-904-2331 or Lt. Dwayne Cooper at 562-904-2370
