Federal authorities have charged an illegal alien with a federal crime in connection with the violent attack on the city’s light rail system, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
A federal criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, charging Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, 33, from Honduras, with one count of illegal reentry by a removed alien and one count of committing an act of violence on a mass transportation system.
According to allegations in the affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, on Dec. 5, at approximately 4:49 p.m., officers with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department received a call for service related to an assault with a deadly weapon that occurred on the Lynx Blue Line light rail in Charlotte. Responding officers located the victim in the rear railcar.
The victim, identified in court documents as K.D., had sustained serious injuries from a stab wound to his upper left chest and was taken to the hospital.
According to witness statements and surveillance footage, Solorzano-Garcia was a passenger on the train and appeared to be intoxicated. K.D. and Solorzano-Garcia engaged in a verbal altercation, and Solorzano-Garcia pulled out a long knife and stabbed the victim in the chest. Solorzano-Garcia then got off the train and began walking away. Additional CMPD officers responding to the scene located Solorzano-Garcia and took him into custody.
The criminal complaint alleges that Solorzano-Garcia is an alien unlawfully present in the United States. It is further alleged that, in 2012, Solorzano-Garcia was arrested by the Union County Police Department in New Jersey and was later convicted of robbery.
In July 2016, Solorzano-Garcia was arrested by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and he was removed from the United States in March 2018. Nine months later, Solorzano-Garcia was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol. He was convicted of illegal reentry and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
On June 9, 2021, Solorzano-Garcia was removed from the United States out of Alexandria, Louisiana.
If convicted, Solorzano-Garcia faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to life in prison for the charge of violence on a mass transportation system, and up to 10 years in prison for the illegal reentry offense.
Be the first to comment