Joseph Gilbert Solano was a 50-year-old Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who was fatally shot on June 12, 2019, in Alhambra, California. He was off-duty after running an errand for his mother and had stopped at a Jack in the Box on West Valley Boulevard for a meal when a man wearing sunglasses and a fedora approached him from behind and shot him in the head. Solano was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, placed on life support, and died two days later surrounded by family and fellow officers.

Investigators identified 30-year-old Rhett McKenzie Nelson of St. George, Utah, as the suspect. Nelson had been reported missing by his family; the day after the shooting he called his father and confessed to two killings in Southern California. Police located him driving a Kia Sorrento matching the vehicle description and recovered clothing and a revolver linked to Solano’s shooting. Nelson was also connected to the earlier fatal shooting of 30-year-old Dmitry Alekseyevich Kolstov in downtown Los Angeles about an hour before Solano was killed. No clear motive for Solano’s shooting has been reported.

If anyone witnessed the Jack in the Box area that evening or has information about the incidents, please share what is known.