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Authorities haven’t said what Solis allegedly did to have violated his parole. Solis has been out of prison on parole since 2014, 12 years after he was convicted in Harris County of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.
It wasn’t immediately clear what, if anything, Dhaliwal knew about the warrant.
Solis is charged with capital murder. A judge ordered Solis held without bond at a probable cause hearing Saturday morning. His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
A woman who was in the vehicle with Solis was also taken into custody. It wasn’t immediately clear if she was facing charges.
“This guy had a heart of gold,” Adrian Garcia, Harris County police commissioner, said. “He treated his brothers and sisters in law enforcement as if they were just brothers and sisters. He thought of them before he thought of himself. He thought of the broader community before he thought of himself.”
Deputy’s dashcam helped identify his alleged killer, authorities say
The deadly encounter started as a regular traffic stop just before 12:30 p.m. CT in the Copper Brook area of northwestern Harris County, said Lee, the Harris County sheriff’s major.
Dhaliwal shut the driver’s door as the driver remained in the vehicle. As he turned to walk back to his patrol car, the driver’s side door opened and a man exited the vehicle “almost immediately running with a gun already out,” Lee said.
The dashcam captured the fatal moment Dhaliwal was shot from behind in the back of the head, Lee said.
“In a cold-blooded manner, ambush style, (he) shot Deputy Dhaliwal from behind,” Gonzalez said. “It’s the worst day, the worst nightmare for any police executive.”
The shooter returned to his vehicle and drove away. A resident who was doing yard work nearby heard the gunshots and rushed to help the deputy.
Authorities identified Solis by looking at Dhaliwal’s dashcam video. They took a photo of the suspect from the dashcam and immediately got it out, Gonzalez said.
Solis has been ordered to undergo a mental evaluation
Solis shot Dhaliwal “in the back of the head as he was walking away,” in a “cold and cowardly manner,” a prosecutor wrote in a court filing arguing for no bond.
Solis has been ordered to undergo a mental evaluation, court records show.
In 2002, he had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after his kidnapping and assault convictions.
He was released in 2014, and was to remain on parole until 2022, according to the Texas Department of Public Saety.
The deputy leaves a legacy as a trailblazer
Dhaliwal is survived by his wife and three children.
He leaves a legacy as a trailblazer for the department he served for a decade. He was the first member of the Sikh community to become a Harris County sheriff’s deputy, officials said.
“As a Sikh American, I felt the need to represent the Sikh community in law enforcement,” Dhaliwal said at the time. “It will give me the chance to open up the conversation.”
Prior to becoming a deputy, Dhaliwal was an entrepreneur with a trucking business. He found out that the Harris County Sheriff’s Office needed someone like him to build bridges with the Sikh community and sold his business. He took lower pay as a detention officer and worked his way up to be a deputy, Garcia said.
“He wore the turban, he represented his community with integrity, respect and pride and he was respected by all,” Gonzalez said.
A community mourns
Online, people shared photos and videos of their encounters with him. One woman sent the sheriff’s office a video of Dhaliwal interacting with her deaf son at a restaurant.
People gathered Friday night at an outdoor, community-led candlelight vigil in the Copper Brook area, near where the shooting happened.
Gonzalez, the sheriff, stopped by.
CNN’s Amir Vera, Devon Sayers, Tina Burnside and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.
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