The Mecklenburg County Republican Party on Wednesday announced plans to hold a candlelight vigil for Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian woman fatally stabbed on the Charlotte light rail last month.
Mecklenburg GOP Chair Kyle Kirby told reporters the vigil would be held at the East/West Boulevard light rail station on Monday Sept. 22, at 8 p.m.
Kirby called on "every able-bodied Charlottean and person in this city who is concerned about crime" to attend the vigil, which will mark 30 days since Zarutska's murder.
He made the announcement at a press conference where he and other Republicans blasted Democrats as "soft-on-crime," and said the local court system failed by allowing the 34-year-old suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., to roam free despite a long history of prior arrests, felony charges and untreated mental illness.
