(The Center Square) Charlotte welcomed its new police chief Friday morning, and by nightfall returned to the spotlight of light rail train safety and the nation’s debate on immigration, two recent flashpoints coming together in one case.
Court filings confirmed the suspect in a fatal stabbing on the Blue Line in the northeastern part of the city was illegally in America and had at least once been deported. Oscar Solarzano is charged with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon and is jailed without bond, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
The victim in the afternoon attack was hospitalized with critical injuries.
🚨#BREAKING: It has been revealed that the man who is charged with the stabbing on the Charlotte NC light rail last night is Oscar Solarzano.
Oscar is an illegal immigrant who was previously deported and then illegally entered the country AGAIN.
He is labelled as a WHITE MALE. pic.twitter.com/J1gGPWqIHT
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) December 6, 2025
Hours earlier, Estella Patterson was sworn in as the city’s new police chief. She will lead a unit embattled by more than 400 arrests during Charlotte’s Web, an enhanced enforcement of federal immigration law that began in November.
Another fatal stabbing occurred on a light rail train 106 days earlier. The Aug. 22 attack on Iryna Zarutska happened late at night and the suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., had been arrested 14 times since 2011. The stabbing was part of the conversation leading the General Assembly to implement policy enacted last Monday that in part denies cashless bail and removes the unwritten moratorium on the death penalty, a legislation known as Iryna’s Law.
On Nov. 15, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol began its operation. Criminal records for some of those arrested included domestic violence, battery, aggravated assault, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault on a police officer, breaking and entering, larceny, driving while intoxicated and hit-and-run.
Democrats in the office of Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, as well as the majorities on the city council and county commission, have been the leading voices among sympathizers to immigrants both lawfully and unlawfully present in the state and in particular the nation’s 14th largest city. They have been joined by first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper, a former four-term state attorney general and two-term governor. Both had served as the state’s attorney generals since 2000 prior to Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, taking office this year.
There have also been more calls for strengthened law enforcement in the city. Republican U.S. Reps. Rev. Mark Harris, Pat Harrigan and Chuck Edwards on Nov. 5 asked Stein to send the National Guard to patrol the city. He declined.
