About an hour before lunchtime, I decided I'd engage in a little retail therapy. I needed to pick up a few organizing bins for a house project I've got planned, and wanted to look at some fall wreath options a little ahead of time, since ours has seen its better days.
After I perused the aisles and picked up the things I wanted, I proceeded to a local fast food restaurant to pick up lunch for Mom and me. I paid for my drive-thru order and was waiting in line for the food when I heard it.
The sounds of the light rail system.
As I've written before, Mom and I live about five minutes from one of the Charlotte light rail stations. 99 percent of the time, if I have an errand to run, I have to travel over at least one set of the tracks, with the train's arrival - complete with the horns sounding and crossing arms lowering - periodically slowing vehicle travelers down momentarily as it drops off existing passengers and loads the next round before going on its way.
I think about Iryna Zarutska often when I hear that sound, and I certainly did today, on the one-year anniversary of her brutal stabbing murder. Zarutska was murdered within minutes of boarding the light rail train, which she was riding to get home from her job at a local pizzeria the Friday night of August 22, 2025. The entire attack was caught on video.
READ MORE (VIP): The Sounds of Charlotte's Light Rail System
In some ways, it doesn't seem like it's been a year. In other ways, it feels like it's been longer. Part of the reason for that is that the wheels of justice turn slowly. The 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee's alleged killer, 34-year-old violent repeat offender DeCarlos Brown, Jr., has not yet stood trial in either the state or federal cases against him.
In April, he was found incompetent to stand trial on his state murder charge. In June, he was found incompetent to stand trial on the federal charges against him (“violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death”). None of this means he will never stand trial, but his competency would have to be restored first.
Brown remains in federal custody. On the incompetency ruling in the federal case, U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson told reporters in June that "the doctor that examined (Brown) for the competency hearing today found that his prognosis for restoration is very good, so I rely on the doctors there. I think the prognosis is good, and we’ll see him stand trial.”
Meanwhile, it was announced on Friday that Iryna's family has filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Charlotte and the company that provides security for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS):
The new lawsuit claims the defendants knew about violent crime that had been happening in and around the light rail before Zarutska’s killing on a light rail car in South End. The city and Professional Security Services, the security company contracted by the city for the light rail, did not use safety measures, including “fare enforcement, physical access barriers, adequate staffing, effective security deployment, monitoring, and passenger warnings,” the lawsuit claims. Zarutska’s family attorney said this led to the deadly stabbing as Zarutska was heading home from her job at a local pizzeria.
Iryna Zarutska's family is suing the city of Charlotte and PSS saying they failed Zarutska and all other riders by not having reasonable security measures like fare enforcement, barriers, adequate staffing and security deployment pic.twitter.com/OX7BtgiWFa
— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) August 21, 2026
News of the lawsuit came just days after findings from the office of State Auditor Dave Boliek (R) were released, showing Charlotte still has a lot of work to do. Among them were these (bolded emphasis added by them):
- CATS has no physical structures (e.g., turnstiles or gates) in place to deter entry by non-ticketed individuals. CATS also lacks adequate procedures and policies to address fare evasion by riders or to enforce the collection of fines arising from fare citations, resulting in the loss of between $5 and 6.5 million in revenue per year.
- The limited interactions between CATS and CMPD have been largely inefficient. For example, only two CMPD officers are currently assigned to CATS’s Metro Transit Unit; at the time of Iryna Zarutska’s murder, there was no direct connection between CMPD’s Real Time Crime Center and CATS’s surveillance camera systems; and CMPD does not appear to assist CATS in enforcing the transit system’s Exclusion List.
The full report can be read here. Included in that is a July 31 letter from the city addressed to the State Auditor's Office sharing what the city is currently doing and what it plans to do going forward on issues like fare modernization and enforcement, and its exclusion policy and identification improvements. They also claimed that "In the first quarter of 2026, crime on the Blue Line decreased by approximately 69 percent compared with the same quarter in 2025, and bus-related assaults declined by roughly 67 percent, with zero major assaults recorded."
Her case remains a focal point in the Senate race between former Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper and former RNC Chairman Michael Whatley.
APOLOGIZE!
— Michael Whatley (@WhatleyNC) August 22, 2026
DeCarlos Brown Jr. was a career criminal, and YOUR FAILURE allowed him to roam the streets. You failed to keep North Carolina families safe.
How do you sleep at night with blood on your hands?! https://t.co/2rQn4kkekP
On a bittersweet note, the tough-on-crime Iryna’s Law bill, which, among other things, tightened pretrial release conditions, was passed by the Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly roughly a month after her murder and signed into law by Democrat Gov. Josh Stein last Oct. 3.
The law is being credited with keeping another violent repeat offender who is accused of viciously attacking a woman on Charlotte streets in broad daylight last month in police custody:
The man accused of a random attack on a woman in Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood was denied bond on Monday morning.
Di-Quan Schafar Hunt, 32, appeared in court on Monday at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse and was denied bond. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police arrested Hunt after investigators linked him to a viral video showing a woman being punched along East Boulevard.
[...]
Investigators say they identified Hunt after reviewing a social media account containing multiple videos they were investigating.
"Prosecutors said this is the exact type of instance that Iryna’s law was made for and the judge agreed," WSOC-TV's Hunter Saenz reported. An article on the station's website also noted that "Hunt was ordered held without bond due to his previous convictions and provisions under Iryna’s Law."
It's been one year since Iryna Zarutska was murdered.
— Brandon Gill (@realBrandonGill) August 22, 2026
She came to America to escape a war, but couldn't survive the soft-on-crime policies in a left-wing city.
Never let them forget. pic.twitter.com/6L3d0IDYjl
We won't.
RIP, Iryna Zarutska. May justice prevail, and may your family be able to one day find peace.
