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The release of video footage of the murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line has unleashed a firestorm of anger from Republicans, including the White House.
President Trump’s close adviser Stephen Miller wrote on X that “The Democrat Party at every level — judges, politicians, academics, nonprofits — is organized around the defense and protection of the criminal, the monstrous and the depraved.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles “doesn’t want the media to show you the ugly truth.” He appeard to be referring to a post on social media in which the mayor wrote: “I want to thank our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family.”
He said the mayor and other officials “bear responsibility” for the murder because the alleged killer, Decarlos Brown, had been arrested more than a dozen times previously. He said Charlotte “failed Iryna Zarutska and North Carolinians” and that safety needs to be the top priority of elected officials.
The pro-transit group Sustain Charlotte said last week in a news release that the Lynx Blue Line is still a safe way to travel, having carried more than 90 million passengers since its opening in 2007. Last month’s murder was the first on the train.
Charlotte is hoping the federal government awards it billions of dollars in grants to build more rail transit if voters approve a sales tax increase this fall. A 1-percentage-point increase to the transit sales tax will be on the ballot in November. The grants would be awarded by the Federal Transit Administration, which falls under Duffy’s purview.
Other conservatives with millions of online followers, such as filmmaker Matt Walsh and Elon Musk, have also criticized Lyles and the city. Walsh criticized Lyles for saying in a statement after the killing that Brown had mental health issues, “which is a disease that needs to be treated with the same compassion and care as cancer.”
The mayor of Charlotte blames the savage stabbing of an innocent woman on “mental health disease” which she says should be treated with “compassion” in the same way that we treat cancer. Mental health has become an excuse for all human evil. That was always the intention. The… pic.twitter.com/XWjvZUpwhQ
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 6, 2025
Meanwhile, the North Carolina Republican Party is planning to hold a news conference Wednesday to talk about the killing.
The Charlotte Area Transit System said last week it was working to improve security on the Lynx Blue Line. Interim CEO Brent Cagle said CATS has tripled the amount of money it spends on security since 2023, and that he plans to have more people checking to make sure passengers have bought tickets.
CATS said Brown did not buy a ticket when he boarded a bus before transferring to the light rail on Aug. 22. Zarutska boarded the Lynx at the East-West station and sat in front of Brown. A few minutes later, he leaped from his seat and stabbed her in the neck with a pocketknife.
The video of the heartbreaking attack that took Iryna Zarutska’s life is now public. I want to thank our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family.
— Mayor Vi Lyles (@CLTMayor) September 6, 2025
This was a senseless and tragic loss. My prayers…
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