Charlotte City Council members on Monday night said they want answers about crime around uptown and on public transit, after several high-profile incidents—including the killing of a 23-year-old woman who was stabbed to death Friday night on the Blue Line light rail in South End.
Iryna Zarutska was a Ukrainian refugee who was killed by 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, police say. They haven't said what led to the stabbing.
Council member Dimple Ajmera said it’s especially important to get a handle on crime now, because voters head to the polls in a little over two months to decide whether to raise Mecklenburg County’s sales tax by one cent to pay for the multibillion transportation plan.
"Clearly our current safety policies are not enough and with the referendum this November I'm even more concerned because we cannot let fear drive people away," she said.
Council member Edwin Peacock also brought up a mass shooting that left five people wounded in uptown this summer. He said he wants to figure out what’s behind those crimes, and whether the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s changing leadership plays a role.
"We're in a gap period right now. We do not have a police chief that is coming in. He is going out. Is that the cause of this? I don't believe so. I'm not pointing a finger at CMPD, but what I do want is I want us to be proactive and not be reactive to this," he said.
Police Chief Johnny Jennings is retiring at the end of the year.
