The gruesome stabbing of a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman aboard a Charlotte light rail train last month has sparked an outpouring of grief, anger and the perhaps inevitable rush by politicians to determine who or what is to blame.
At dueling press conferences on Wednesday — one by Republicans at the Parkwood light rail stop and the other by a Democratic city councilman at the uptown bus station — several possibilities were floated: weak fare enforcement, inadequate mental health care, lax security on public transit, Mayor Vi Lyles, and "soft-on-crime" policies.
But throughout the many statements, speeches and posts on social media, local leaders from both parties seemed to agree on one thing: The justice system isn't doing enough to stop repeat offenders from cycling through jail and back onto the streets.
The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., had been arrested 14 times over the past 18 years. He faced charges of simple assault, disorderly conduct, shoplifting, communicating threats, and felony breaking and entering. In 2014, police said he robbed a man with a handgun, for which he served five years in state prison.
That long criminal record should have be a red flag, some argue, when Brown was arrested again this January for misusing the 911 system — a misdemeanor. Judge Teresa Stokes released him on a written promise to appear in court and ordered a mental health evaluation.
Brown's mother, Michelle Dewitt, told ABC News that Brown was mentally unwell at the time, and claimed to have eaten a "man-made" material that was controlling what he ate and how he walked and talked. She said he had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but refused to take his medication.
Cashless bail becomes GOP target
Local and state Republicans focused much of their criticism on Mayor Vi Lyles and other Democrats on Wednesday, casting their tone and policies as "soft-on-crime."
North Carolina GOP Chair Jason Simmons blamed "ongoing failures" by Democratic leaders to address "crime rates that continue to climb year after year after year after year."
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said in July that violent crime in Charlotte had fallen 25% this year, and homicides were down 29%. The stabbing is also the first reported homicide on Charlotte's light rail since it opened in 2008.
Mecklenburg GOP Chair Kyle Kirby also blasted Democrats, but said the court system also deserved to take blame, saying, "You failed to incarcerate an individual who had been arrested previously 14 times."
He also said, "The time is now to demand cash bail for multiple-time offenders."
Bail policies in North Carolina are broadly set by state law, though judges and prosecutors have some discretion in how they’re applied. Any major change to bail policies would have to come from the Republican-controlled state legislature.
Other Republicans called for tougher measures. City Councilman Ed Driggs said residents shouldn't have to live in worry about mentally ill criminals.
"They need to be confined," he said. "The public needs to be protected from them. Afterwards, you can worry about whether they should be in a treatment center or a prison, or where they should be, but they cannot be out in circulation."
Councilmember Edwin Peacock III criticized the city’s spending priorities, pointing to hundreds of millions of dollars the city has spent on stadium upgrades for the Carolina Panthers and the Charlotte Hornets while “our jail is too small and our mental health facilities are overwhelmed.”
Graham calls for collaboration
At the Charlotte Area Transit Center on Wednesday, Democratic City Councilman Malcolm Graham said he agreed that the system had failed, but said the focus should be on breaking the cycle of repeat offenders.
"We must close the revolving door for repeat offenders," he said. "Too many of the crimes that disrupt our neighborhoods and transit systems are committed by individuals who cycle through the system over and over and over again.”
He said he wanted the city to work with healthcare and mental health providers to develop a "collaborative" response to the tragedy.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles has declined media interviews since release of the footage, but said in a written statement Monday that the killing was a “senseless act of violence that has shaken our community.”
She ordered more police patrols and fare enforcement on trains, and pledged to cooperate with federal investigations. She also pushed back on critics, noting bail decisions are made by judges, not city officials, and called the killing “a failure of the courts and magistrates.”
Meanwhile, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather said on WFAE's Charlotte Talks that the incident highlighted another challenge: too few prosecutors to keep up with a rapidly growing county.
“Since 2010, this county has grown by 20%," he said. "We have a single prosecutor that’s been added to the district attorney’s office. I will tell you over the course of the last year, the General Assembly in both the House and the Senate decided that we needed at least 10 more … but they haven’t come to an agreement yet on their budget.”
As the debate continues, the family of Iryna Zarutska — the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was killed — has asked the public and the media to refrain from sharing the video of her final moments, and urged city leaders to focus on improving safety and preventing future tragedies.
Elvis Menayese contributed to this report.
