The southbound 101 Freeway through Downtown Los Angeles was shut down for more than an hour this afternoon while sheriff’s deputies searched for a Long Beach homicide suspect, but he avoided capture.
Authorities said they shut down the freeway between 3:44 p.m. and 4:55 p.m. while they looked for the suspect, Steven Manzo.
Manzo, 23, of Hawaiian Gardens, was facing charges for the 2018 killing of Salvador Corrales, 24, according to Long Beach police.
Long Beach police said they were notified by prosecutors today that Manzo had been released “after our Department had already filed criminal charges. Upon further review, it was determined he should not have been released.”
NBC LA reported the mixup was because of a “data entry error.”
Manzo had been taken into custody in March last year near his home in Hawaiian Gardens, according to LBPD arrest records.
Police said Manzo killed Corrales on the night of July 26, 2018 when the two “agreed to meet in the parking lot, where they became involved in a dispute, which led to the shooting.”
Online court records show two cases pending against Manzo in connection with the July 26, 2018 date—one filed shortly after his arrest in March 2020 and another filed yesterday, the same day he was in court for a hearing on the original case.
Online records from the LA County Sheriff’s Department, which manages the jails, list the case against Manzo as “dismissed.”
Long Beach police say Manzo shot Corrales in a parking lot on Cherry Avenue near the 91 Freeway. Corrales’ body was later found inside a vehicle in the 5800 block of Florence Avenue in Bell Gardens, police said.