Funeral procession to be held for slain sheriff's deputy

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Memorial services for sheriff's Deputy Joseph Solano, who was shot in an apparently unprovoked attack inside an Alhambra Jack in the Box restaurant, will be held Monday morning in downtown Los Angeles.

The funeral for Solano will take place at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, 555 W. Temple St., beginning at 9:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Burial will take place in a private ceremony at Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier Blvd., in East Los Angeles immediately following the 90-minute church service.

All westbound lanes of Temple Street will be closed between Grand Avenue and Hill Street as of 6:30 a.m. Monday but eastbound lanes will remain open until about 7:30 a.m., when Temple Street will be closed in both directions between Grand and Hill. Also at 7:30 a.m., all north- and southbound lanes of Hill Street will be closed between Temple and Ord streets.

Solano was gunned down at a Jack in the Box in Alhambra on June 10. A Utah man was arrested in Long Beach the next day in connection with the deputy's killing.

Rhett McKenzie Nelson, 30, was charged June 13 with Solano's death and two counts of robbery for allegedly carrying out heists at a 7-Eleven store and a Shell gas station, both in Long Beach, hours after the killings. Nelson is also accused of killing 31-year-old Dmitry Alekseyevich Kolstov -- about an
hour before Solano's killing -- in the 1900 block of East Seventh Place, between Santa Fe Avenue and Alameda Street, in downtown Los Angeles.

Nelson is jailed without bail while awaiting arraignment July 22 at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.

Solano was at the counter of the restaurant when he was shot in the​​​​​​ head in what sheriff's officials believe was a random attack. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said there was no indication the shooter knew that Solano -- who was off-duty and not in uniform -- was a sheriff's deputy.

"The deputy was alerted in the restaurant that someone was following him, and that's when he turned to confront (the person), and that's when the shooting happened,'' Villanueva said. `"That much we do know. But the motive,the rationale from the suspect -- that's the million-dollar question."

The Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union representing deputies, is collecting donations on behalf of Solano's family. Donations can be made to the ALADS CARES program at 2 Cupania Circle, Monterey Park, CA, 91755.