A Honduran man who immigration authorities say was deported from the United States twice has been charged with stabbing another passenger on a Charlotte light rail train, leaving the victim in critical but stable condition. The incident, which occurred Friday, has prompted renewed scrutiny of immigration enforcement and transit safety in the city, following a separate fatal stabbing on the same rail line earlier this year.
A Honduran national previously deported from the United States has been charged with stabbing a man aboard a Charlotte light rail train, in what authorities say is the second serious knife attack on the system since August.
Local and national outlets identify the suspect as Oscar Solarzano, a 33-year-old Honduran citizen who is in the country illegally and had been removed from the United States twice before returning. Homeland Security officials told reporters that federal immigration records show Solarzano was deported in 2018 and again in 2021 before he allegedly re-entered the country without authorization.
According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and court records summarized by the Associated Press and other outlets, Solarzano boarded a Lynx Blue Line train in Charlotte on Friday while intoxicated and allegedly provoked a confrontation with another male passenger. During the altercation, he is accused of pulling out a large knife and stabbing the victim.
Police said the victim was taken to a hospital and is in critical but stable condition. Authorities have charged Solarzano with attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, among other counts. He is being held without bond in the Mecklenburg County jail.
Homeland Security officials have said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged an immigration detainer requesting that Solarzano be transferred to federal custody if he is released from local custody. Federal authorities have not publicly detailed his full criminal history, though multiple news reports cite prior robbery and aggravated battery cases in his record.
Friday’s attack came just months after the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed on the same light rail line on August 22. Zarutska, who had fled the war in Ukraine and was living in Charlotte with family, was on her way home from her job at a local pizzeria when she was stabbed in what investigators have described as an unprovoked attack.
In that earlier case, authorities say Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, allegedly slashed Zarutska in the neck with a pocketknife while the train was in motion. Brown was arrested after stepping off the train and has been charged with first-degree murder in state court. A federal grand jury later indicted him on a charge related to violence against a mass transportation system, making him eligible for the federal death penalty.
Zarutska’s killing drew national attention and sharp criticism of local and state officials over public safety, mental health treatment and the handling of repeat offenders. Court records and news reports show Brown has a long criminal history, including prior convictions for armed robbery and other offenses, as well as a documented history of mental illness.
In the wake of Zarutska’s death, North Carolina lawmakers advanced criminal justice proposals addressing bail and mental health evaluations, and Charlotte transit officials announced plans to increase fare inspections, add security personnel and install additional ticket validators on light rail platforms.
Following the latest stabbing, federal and local leaders have again clashed over how to address violent crime and immigration enforcement in Charlotte. The Trump administration has pointed to both cases in public statements as evidence of what it describes as systemic failures in the criminal justice and immigration systems. In response to concerns about so-called "sanctuary" practices, federal officials have said they expanded immigration enforcement operations in the Charlotte area in recent months, leading to increased arrests of people in the country illegally.
Civil liberties advocates and some local officials, meanwhile, have warned that broad immigration sweeps could erode trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement, even as residents continue to demand safer public transit after the two high-profile stabbings.