Months after the brutal stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska, police have arrested another illegal migrant for a knife attack on the North Carolina light rail
In the most recent incident, Police in Charlotte arrested a 33-year-old man in connection with a stabbing aboard a light rail train, just four months after the pretty young Ukrainian refugee was killed in a separate attack on the city’s transportation system.
Authorities on Dec. 6 charged Oscar Solarzano with three felonies, including attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and breaking and entering a motor vehicle, as well as several misdemeanors.
Solarzana is accused of breaking into a commuter train car and stabbing 24-year-old Kenyon Kareem-Shemar Dobie with a large knife, according to court documents. An arrest warrant alleges Solarzano, appearing intoxicated, shouted unintelligibly at Dobie and challenged him to fight before stabbing him.
Dobie was transported to a local hospital and is currently in critical but stable condition, according to police.
Magistrate Judge Rebecca Howell wrote in court filings that Solarzano was in the United States illegally and had previously been deported. He is being held without bond.
In a Dec. 6 news release, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had requested that local police hold Solarzano until they are able to take custody of him. According to the release, Solarzano is from Honduras and was removed from the United States in 2018. He was apprehended at the border in 2021 and was removed again, before reentering the country at “an unknown date and location.”
“This heinous stabbing by this twice-removed illegal alien should have NEVER happened. ICE lodged an arrest detainer to ensure Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia is not released back into North Carolina neighborhoods,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
She accused officials in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County of not cooperating with ICE enforcement in the past. Experts previously told the press that North Carolina has some of the strictest immigration provisions in the country, including a mandate requiring local jails to hold arrested immigrants so federal authorities can collect them.
The stabbing incident comes months after the fatal attack of Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte train car garnered national attention. That horrific killing led President Trump to target Charlotte as part of his crime crackdown in Democratic-led cities and launch “Operation Charlotte’s Web.”
Since that surge, federal agents say they have arrested more than 130 undocumented immigrants in Charlotte, including several dozen with charges ranging from driving under the influence to aggravated assault.
Trump addressed the Charlotte stabbing in a Dec. 6 social media post, writing, “Another stabbing by an Illegal Migrant in Charlotte, North Carolina. What’s going on in Charlotte?”