LOS ANGELES _ A Utah man was charged with two counts of murder Thursday after he allegedly gunned down a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and another man in a pair of seemingly random shootings, officials said.
Rhett McKenzie Nelson, 30, was to make his first appearance in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Thursday afternoon in connection with the shooting deaths of veteran sheriff's Deputy Joseph Solano and 30-year-old Dmitry Alekseyevich Kolstov, according to a statement issued by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Prosecutors say Nelson opened fire on Solano inside an Alhambra Jack in the Box restaurant at 5:45 p.m. Monday. Solano was shot in the back of the head and died of his injuries Wednesday, officials said.
"He confronted a threat not knowing what it was, and in a split second, he lost his life, and that's what it is in law enforcement," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who fought back tears when he announced Solano's death Wednesday.
One hour before the attack in Alhambra, prosecutors said Nelson shot and killed Kolstov while sitting in a car in the 1900 block of East Seventh Place in downtown Los Angeles after a brief verbal exchange. Kolstov was shot at 4:50 p.m., and pronounced dead at the scene less than 20 minutes later, according to Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
Investigators also accused Nelson of robbing a gas station and a 7-Eleven in Long Beach, according to the district attorney's office. Police in San Diego also consider him a suspect in five armed robberies in recent days.
Nelson was arrested Tuesday in Long Beach, after calling his father in Utah and making reference to having killed someone in Southern California, investigators have said.
A resident of St. George, Utah, Nelson was reported missing in late May. He left home with a gun and told his family that he planned to "make it on his own or die," according to St. George Police Department Capt. Mike Giles.
Nelson had a history of problems with drug abuse and his family was concerned about his mental state, according to Giles, who said Nelson did not have a diagnosed history of mental illness.
