(L.A.) Samantha Palacios, 3, Died in a Hospital

Case Number: 2022-02551

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 3-year-old Hispanic female that occurred in a hospital.

The coroner’s office has identified the child as Samantha Palacios.

Manner of Death: Accident

Cause of Death: Blunt Head Trauma

RIP SAMANTHA PALACIOS (July 19, 2018 – March 2, 2022)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Wednesday at 1:40 a.m.

The decedent and her 42-year-old father Jose Palacios Gonzalez were killed by a pickup truck that had crashed into their apartment building in Long Beach.

Jose was pronounced dead at the scene after being pinned under the truck for several hours. Samantha was taken Long Beach Medical Center, where she died of her injuries the next day.

A $25,000 reward was jointly offered by the The City of Long Beach, with support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect in a hit-and-run crash. He had just left Bottoms Up Tavern in the 6600 block of Rose Avenue after having a few drinks. Security footage from the bar showed the driver getting in his truck and making a flailing left from Artesia Boulevard before crashing into the family’s studio apartment.

Police identified the suspect as 24-year-old Octavio Montano. He was driving a 2014 Ram 1500 pickup northbound on Rose Avenue, near East Artesia Boulevard, at about 10 p.m. March 1 when the truck “left the roadway and collided with an apartment building, killing two of the occupants inside.”

Montano ran away from the scene following the collision. He is described as being 5-feet 8-inches tall and weighing 160 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and unspecified tattoos on his right forearm.