A year after Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light-rail train, a string of violent attacks involving people with extensive arrest records has kept North Carolina’s public-safety debate in the spotlight.The one year milestone falls as the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police (NCFOP) endorsed Republican U.S.Senate candidate Michael Whatley, citing concerns about repeat offenders, bail policies and support for law enforcement.Zarutska, 23, was sitting aboard Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line on Aug.
22, 2025, when authorities said Decarlos Brown Jr.pulled a knife and stabbed her three times from behind before leaving the train.PROSECUTORS SAY CHARLOTTE TRAIN STABBING CASE WON'T BE DISMISSED REGARDLESS OF COMPETENCY RULINGBrown, 34, has been found incompetent to stand trial in both his state and federal cases.Iryna Zarutska curls up in fear as a man looms over her during a disturbing attack on a Charlotte, N.C.
light rail train.(NewsNation via Charlotte Area Transit System)Zarutska’s killing helped prompt North Carolina’s Iryna’s Law, which tightened bail rules and increased oversight of defendants considered a risk to public safety.NCFOP President Chet Effler told Fox News Digital the union’s roughly 6,000 members backed Whatley over concerns about repeat offenders, bail policies and support for law enforcement.Booking photo of Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., taken Sept.
14, 2022, following his arrest in Mecklenburg County.Brown, 34, is now charged in the Aug.
22, 2025, stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train.(Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO))"We have lost accountability in this country," Effler said.
"There’s no reason to be soft on crime whenever you have victims who are going to be victims of those crimes for years to come."Effler also pointed to the arrest of Charlotte man Di-Quan Schafar Hunt as an example of what he described as a recurring failure to hold r...