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.

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.

Charlotte stabbing reignites debates on commuter safety, immigration