Man charged in deputy killing served fraction of sentence for aggravated assault with deadly weapon

HOUSTON - On February 11, 2002, Houston SWAT officers rescued a young child being held hostage by his own father. 

Robert Solis, now charged with capital murder in connection with the shooting of Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, was accused of holding his 4-year-old hostage after shooting another man in southwest Houston.

The little boy was not harmed, but it took the team an hour and a half to talk Solis into surrendering his child.

The incident began that day just after 10:00 a.m. when a man was shot in the leg in the 2300 block of Briarwest Boulevard. The victim told police his girlfriend's cousin shot him. 

Harry Hill, the victim, had had an argument that morning with his girlfriend, Andrea Aguilar. Aguilar then left and drove to Solis' house, where he noticed she had scratches on her face and that she'd been crying. Aguilar admitted Hill had hit her, and Solis grabbed a gun from the closet and drove her car to find Hill.

According to Solis' appeal, he shot Hill in the back of the leg as he was running away, seeing that Solis had a gun.

When the police arrived at Solis' house, they found Solis in a chair in the garage with the door open, holding a gun in his hand and his toddler son in the other. He refused to surrender, until an hour and half later.

Solis was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but served only 12. He was paroled in 2014 with a discharge date in 2022.

While on parole, Solis was convicted of DWI in 2016. The parole board elected not to return him to prison and allowed him to remain on parole despite the conviction of a new offense.

In January 2017, another parole warrant was issued for parole violations. He was allegedly in possession of a firearm. His whereabouts have not been known since that time, remaining a fugitive for over two years.