Los Angeles County DA George Gascon declined to charge man months before he allegedly murdered off-duty cop

A man accused of killing an off-duty Los Angeles-area police officer this month would have been locked up if authorities had prosecuted him for prior strikes in a February felony domestic violence case, meaning he would have faced prison time. 

Carlos Delcid, 20, allegedly shot Monterey Park police officer Gardiel Solorio, 26, multiple times on Aug. 8 while he was sitting in his car outside a gym in a busy shopping center. Delcid reportedly shot Solorio five times at close range as he was backing up and slammed into a parked van while trying to get away.

Delcid returned to a nearby vehicle and took off with a 17-year-old driver, who has been charged in juvenile court for his participation in the crime. Delcid, who has a long criminal history, has two strikes on his record that weren’t prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in February. 

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Sources told Fox News the strikes were for assault when he was 17. The strikes were not alleged by prosecutors in the recent domestic violence case.  

Instead, he was released from jail with probation. The DA’s office said the strikes were not known to prosecutors at the time of the case. 

“In the case of Mr. Delcid, the two prior strikes did not show up in the system,” a DA statement said. “In fact, the database indicated that the case had been handled informally. This led to our filing team to reasonably believe that Mr. Delcid did not have strikes priors resulting from that case.”

The strikes would have been alleged in court had prosecutors known about them, the DA said. 

Delcid has been charged with one count each of murder, attempted robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon with the special circumstance allegation that the murder was committed during a robbery.

Solorio joined the department as a recruit in January, but only graduated from the sheriff’s training academy last month. He began his field training on July 25. 

Fox News’ Pilar Arias contributed to this report.