The county Board of Supervisors Tuesday reestablished and increased a reward for information leading to a motorist suspected of driving drunk and slamming into a Long Beach apartment building, killing a man and his 3-year-old daughter who were inside.
Octavio Montano Islas, who was 24 at the time, is suspected in the March 1, 2022, crash that killed Jose Palacios Gonzalez, 42, and his daughter Samantha Palacios.
Long Beach police said the victims were sleeping in their apartment near Artesia Boulevard and Rose Avenue when the crash occurred.
Islas was allegedly drunk when he drove a 2014 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup north on Rose Avenue around 10 p.m. when the truck “left the roadway and collided with an apartment building, killing two of the occupants inside,” the Long Beach Police Department reported at the time.
Islas allegedly fled the scene on foot following the collision.
Gonzalez was pronounced dead at the scene, while his daughter Samantha was taken to a hospital, where she later died.
Los Angeles County had originally offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the driver, but that offer expired on Aug. 3. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors agreed to reestablish a $20,000 reward offer in the case.
“Today Samantha would have been seven years old, possibly starting 2nd grade in a few weeks, had Octavio Montano Islas not brutally cut her life short,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, who sponsored the reward motion, said in a statement. “Nothing will fill the gap left by the deaths of Samantha and her dad Jose, but we need to find this driver and hold him accountable. Their families deserve justice.
“If you know where Octavio is or where he might have gone, please share that information with detectives.”
Police described Islas as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and unspecified tattoos on his right forearm.
Anyone with information on Montano’s whereabouts was asked to call LBPD Cmdr. Scott Jenson at 562-570-7218.