Bernardo Solorio, a 37-year-old Latino man from Long Beach, was fatally shot on the morning of July 11, 2021, after being pursued into an apartment complex in the city’s Washington neighborhood. At about 9:13 a.m., Long Beach police officers responded to reports of gunfire in the 300 block of East 17th Street, near Long Beach Boulevard. They found Solorio in the courtyard of the complex suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his upper and lower torso.
Officers began emergency lifesaving measures until Long Beach Fire Department personnel arrived, and Solorio was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital in critical condition. His injuries proved fatal, and police were notified at about 7 p.m. that evening that he had died.
The initial investigation indicated that the shooting was not a random encounter. Police said a male assailant had followed Solorio on foot toward the apartment complex before opening fire and fleeing in the direction of Long Beach Boulevard. Investigators treated the killing as potentially gang-related and assigned gang detectives to help locate witnesses and collect evidence before homicide detectives took over after Solorio’s death. Later court records provided a more detailed account of the moments leading up to the gunfire. Surveillance footage cited in a search warrant reportedly showed Solorio outside the apartment building as a silver Toyota sedan and a black Dodge Charger approached the area. Police wrote that Solorio’s demeanor appeared to change after he noticed the Charger passing him.
Investigators alleged that Lajuan Deshaun King, a Long Beach resident associated by police with the Insane Baby Crips gang, then chased Solorio toward the entrance of the apartment complex while wearing dark clothing and a face covering. Solorio ran through the front gate and closed it behind him. According to the warrant, King did not simply turn away when he reached the barrier. Investigators alleged that he climbed the gate, stood on or near its doorknob and fired downward at Solorio inside the property. Police later found spent cartridge casings at the scene. Before dying at the hospital, Solorio was reportedly able to tell investigators that the person who shot him had been in a Dodge Charger.
The case developed over the following months as Long Beach homicide detectives worked with forensic evidence from the scene. A significant break came after the Los Angeles Police Department recovered a Glock-style privately manufactured firearm, commonly described as a ghost gun, during an unrelated investigation in November 2021. Long Beach police investigators said forensic examination connected that weapon with cartridge casings recovered from the scene of Solorio’s shooting. Authorities came to believe the seized gun was the weapon used in the killing and said it was also being examined in connection with other shootings.
Detectives ultimately identified King as the suspected gunman and arrested him on January 12, 2022, near his residence in the 1000 block of East Seventh Street in Long Beach. Police said the arrest followed months of investigative work and the collection of evidence they believed tied him to Solorio’s death. Court records described Solorio as being associated with the Barrio Pobre gang and King as being associated with the Insane Baby Crips, leading investigators to characterize the killing as gang-related and involving rival gang members.
Prosecutors charged King with murder as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm. When he appeared in court in February 2022, he pleaded not guilty to the charges. He remained in custody at that time with bail set at $4 million. Publicly available reporting located for this synopsis establishes the arrest, the murder and firearm charges, the not-guilty plea and the prosecution’s allegations, but it does not provide a reliably documented later trial verdict, conviction, acquittal or sentencing outcome in Solorio’s case. Accordingly, King should be regarded as the accused suspect in the available reporting rather than described as having been proven guilty of killing Solorio.
