By ERIK VERDUZCO and ALLEN G. BREED Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina judge on Monday ordered a Honduran man to be held without bond in a non-fatal stabbing on a Charlotte commuter train that drew comments from President Donald Trump pointing out the suspect is in the country illegally.
Oscar Solarzano, 33, wearing an orange jumpsuit and appearing via video link, listened impassively as a translator read charges of attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and others. Mecklenburg County District Judge Keith Smith scheduled his next hearing for Dec. 30.
The public defender in the courtroom declined to comment.
Solarzano, also known as Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, is charged with stabbing 24-year-old Kenyon Kareem Dobie in the chest during a fight Friday on the city’s Blue Line.
It was revealed in court that Solarzano — whose address listed in charging documents was a local homeless shelter — had been banned from Charlotte Area Transit Service property in October. CATS spokesman Brett Baldeck confirmed the ban, but did not have any further details. “Our security team is looking into this now,” Baldeck said.
The Department of Homeland Security says Solarzano had been deported twice and has previous convictions for robbery and illegal reentry, but details were not immediately available.
DHS, which recently conducted an immigration crackdown in Charlotte and around the state capital of Raleigh, has lodged a detainer with local authorities.
Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Dobie were unsuccessful. But he told WRAL that he confronted Solarzano for yelling at an older woman.
“I guess it’s better off that it happened to me and not an older person,” Dobie told the station.
“I wasn’t trying to be a macho man,” Dobie said in a TikTok post from his hospital room. “But what I won’t allow is you to attack random people for no reason, especially the elderly.”
The incident comes just a few months after a Ukrainian refugee riding one of the city’s trains was killed in an unrelated knife attack.
Iryna Zarutska, 23, had been living in a bomb shelter in Ukraine before coming to the U.S. to escape the war, her relatives said. Decarlos Brown Jr., has been charged with first-degree murder in state court, and was also indicted in federal court on a charge of causing death on a mass transportation system.
As with the Aug. 22 attack, Trump and others in his administration point to the incident as proof that Democratic-led cities are soft on crime.
“Another stabbing by an Illegal Migrant in Charlotte, North Carolina,” Trump commented Saturday about the latest stabbing on his Truth Social site. “What’s going on in Charlotte? Democrats are destroying it, like everything else, piece by piece!!!”
Although they have not responded directly to Trump, city officials have defended their efforts to keep the public safe.
“We have invested heavily in increasing security on our transit system and CMPD has been proactive in increasing its presence across our city, including announcing a new multi-agency effort this week,” Mayor Vi Lyles said on Saturday. “There are several aspects of public safety that are outside of the city’s jurisdiction, including immigration policy and enforcement, but we will continue to focus on public safety and ensuring a safe and vibrant community.”
Brent Cagle, CATS interim CEO, said the transit system has taken a “proactive and robust” safety approach since Zarutska’s stabbing, with extra off-duty police officers, private security and new technology.
“We will continue to work with our partners at CMPD as well as our private security team to ensure everyone rides appropriately on public transit,” he said. “We will not compromise on the safety of our customers and employees.”
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Breed reported from Wake Forest, North Carolina.