A man accused of shooting an off-duty Monterey Park police officer to death outside a gym in Downey in 2022 during an apparent attempted robbery is also believed to have been involved in a similar robbery in Long Beach earlier that year, prosecutors said Friday, Feb. 9.
Clad in an orange jail jumpsuit, Carlos Daniel Delcid, 21, watched as prosecutors played a video of the armed robbery outside a marijuana dispensary at South Street and Locust Avenue in Long Beach’s De Forest neighborhood on April 26, 2022.
Security camera footage captured multiple angles of what happened — they show a tall man with a mask approaching a delivery truck driver making a stop at the dispensary at around 2:30 p.m. that day. The masked suspect pulls out a handgun, brandishing it at the driver while demanding his chain necklace. When the driver refuses, the suspect snatches the chain from the driver’s neck, then demands his wallet. Gun in hand, the suspect then chases the driver, eventually picking up the wallet the fleeing victim tossed to the ground.
Detective Jacquelin Parchill of the Long Beach Police Department investigated the robbery of the truck driver, and identified Delcid as the suspect during her testimony on Friday during a preliminary hearing inside a Norwalk courtroom.
Delcid is already being prosecuted as the main suspect in the deadly shooting of 26-year-old Gardiel Solorio, an off-duty Monterey Park police officer who was killed during a botched robbery in the parking lot of an LA Fitness located at Apollo Landing, a popular shopping mall in Downey, on August 8, 2022.
Delcid was arrested two days after that shooting. He was charged that month with one count each of murder, shooting at an occupied motor vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Prosecutors on Friday said they were adding an additional charge of second-degree armed robbery in the Long Beach case.
During Friday’s hearing, police and prosecutors described how they built their case against Delcid and Gerardo Magallanes, one of his codefendants: Both men appeared to have unwittingly spoken to undercover officers they encountered while they were being held in jail after they were arrested as suspects in Solorio’s killing.
Detective Ron Gee of the Downey Police Department testified Friday that he listened to recordings of the jailhouse interviews with both men. He said Magallanes told the undercover officers that he was inside a black Honda Accord with Delcid and a teenage driver cruising through the Apollo Landing parking lot on the day of the shooting of Solorio. Magallanes told the officers that he and Delcid discussed trying to “come up on” — or rob — someone.
Magallanes told the officers he watched Delcid exit the Accord, then approach a Dodge Charger parked outside the LA Fitness at Apollo Landing. After a few moments, Magallanes said he heard five loud “pops,” followed by Delcid running back to the Accord.
During a separate jailhouse operation, Delcid also discussed the Apollo Landing shooting, telling the undercover officers he was in the Accord and that he was wearing a full ski mask.
Gee did not say Friday whether Delcid admitted to the shooting in that jailhouse interview.
Superior Court Judge Joseph R. Porras denied a motion by Delcid’s attorney to drop the charges. Delcid will return to court on Feb. 23.