Calling the fatal shooting of a woman aboard a subway train “a true tragedy that should never have happened,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón announced a murder charge Wednesday against a homeless man with a history of violence against passengers.
Elliot Tramel Nowden was arrested Monday shortly after Mirna Soza, a 66-year-old security guard returning from her night shift, was found fatally injured on the ground on the Universal Studios train station platform. He has now been charged with murder, first-degree robbery of a passenger in transit and use of a deadly weapon.
Soza, a Nicaraguan native and mother of three, was returning home after working the night shift at an Original Tommy’s hamburger restaurant in North Hills when she was killed. Authorities say that shortly after 5 a.m., Nowden approached Sosa with a knife and stabbed her in the throat as they both got off the train in North Hollywood.
“She was stabbed without provocation by a man who grabbed the bag she was holding,” Gascón told a news conference. The prosecutor said prosecutors also filed a special allegation that the murder was committed during a robbery. If convicted of all charges, Nowden faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“I want to assure the family that we and the police department will do everything in our power to ensure that justice prevails here.” Gascon said.
“Obviously it was unprovoked. It was violent,” he said.
Elliot Tramel Nowden has been charged with murder for fatally stabbing a subway train passenger.
(Los Angeles Police Department)
In June 2019, Nowden was arrested and charged with attacking a passenger on a subway train in Los Angeles. He pleaded no contest, spent five days in jail and was sentenced to 36 months’ probation, according to court records.
Under the terms of his probation, he was ordered to stay away from subway trains.
A few weeks later, Nowden appeared before a judge on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery. He was sentenced to four years in state prison after pleading no contest to the assault charge, according to court records, and received 179 days of credit for time served.
Nowden was paroled to the Department of State Hospitals on March 18, 2022, while serving his prison sentence, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
He was released on parole in August 2022 and released on parole in March 2023. But in January, Nowden was arrested again by the LAPD for trespassing.
Soza knew that the first few hours of commuting on public transportation could be dangerous, so she often stayed at Tommy’s until sunrise, her colleagues say. But on Monday she was too sleepy, so she began her journey back on the B line.
Other passengers discovered the bloody scene on the Universal platform Monday morning and immediately alerted authorities. Despite lifesaving measures taken by paramedics, Soza died from her injuries in hospital.
Acting Police Chief Dominic Choi said that about 30 minutes after the LAPD arrived at the station, officers spotted a person matching the description of the attacker near Ventura Boulevard and Vineland Avenue.
The man, later identified as Nowden, was arrested and questioned by detectives from the Valley Bureau’s homicide division. Nowden, 45, was arrested on suspicion of murder after detectives reviewed evidence, according to the LAPD.
Public records show Nowden’s last known address was in Little Rock, Ark. He was a fugitive wanted in Texas in November 2008, according to court records. In Bexar County, Texas, he was charged with theft and drug possession.
At Tuesday’s police commission meeting, Commissioner Maria Lou Calanche asked Choi for assurance that there was adequate security on the subway early in the morning.
Choi responded that the department’s “deployment is strategic and based on crime trends and needs.” He did not provide details.
“It’s not just a flat deployment, just saying we’re deployed. So we look at crime trends while looking at ridership. We review the activity and deploy accordingly,” Choi added.
He said the officers on trains, in stations and on buses, along with Metro Ambassadors, “are a directed effort to increase our presence as well as safety on these lines.”
“Again, we can’t be everywhere all the time,” Choi said. The department tries to distribute officers and engage with riders “to create a sense of safety and address crime trends or issues as they arise immediately and quickly.”
Times staff writers Nathan Solis and Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.
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