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Charlotte officials have talked up police statistics showing crime is trending downward across the city. But the public isn’t buying it, especially after a 23-year-old commuter was stabbed to death on a light rail train.
For many residents and conservative leaders, the stabbing death highlights what they see as a dangerous disconnect between statistics and reality on the streets.
“The progressive policies seem to be in a reactive posture — something bad happens, and then they throw a Band-Aid on it,” Chris Swecker, a former chair of the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission who worked for the FBI, told Fox News Digital. “They don’t draw the connection between their policies, which are very pro-crime and anti-victim, and these tragic incidents. The data and the history are clear: more officers, more proactive policing, more prosecutions drive crime down.”
The case has become a flashpoint in debates over crime, public safety and repeat offenders in Democrat-led cities nationwide.
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Uptown Charlotte: A hot spot of rising violence
According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Central Division data, overall crime in uptown Charlotte – where many people live, work and visit daily – rose 2.4% in the first half of the year, with violent crime up more than 9%. Robberies spiked 54.5%. Police said the spike is being fueled by robberies near bars, nightclubs and transit hubs, and have rolled out a multi-million-dollar safety initiative with corporate partners to try to restore public confidence.
Citywide, Charlotte officials say that crime is down. CMPD data show overall offenses fell 8% in the first half of 2025, with violent crime down 25% and homicides dropping nearly 30%.
Yet when Charlotte is measured against the rest of the country, the picture is far more troubling. AreaVibes reports the city’s total crime rate is 77% higher than the national average, with violent crime about 746 per 100,000 residents, and property crime roughly 73% above average. NeighborhoodScout estimates residents face a 1-in-26 chance of becoming a victim of a property crime.
Charlotte had 105 homicides in 2024 compared to 88 in 2023, the Associated Press reported, and the rate of vehicle thefts per 100,000 people more than doubled there from 2020 through 2024.
“When I got here in 1999, crime was under 50 homicides a year. Charlotte used data-driven policing and accountability, and crime dropped. But starting around 2020, with no-cash bail, decriminalized drug crimes and talk of defunding the police, arrests and prosecutions dropped,” Swecker said. “Those policies have conspired to drive crime rates up everywhere.”
“The public should believe their own eyes. They see crime going up, and they’re right. Police commanders across the country are under pressure to downcode crimes or bundle them together to make the numbers look better,” he said. “But the reality is the worst of the worst keep finding their way back on the street.”
On Monday, the White House released a list of recent policies it says have fueled Charlotte’s crime crisis.
In 2020, the Charlotte City Council launched a “reimagine policing” initiative that diverted 911 calls away from police officers. That same year, then-Gov. Roy Cooper created the “Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice,” co-chaired by then–Attorney General and now-Gov. Josh Stein, which recommended eliminating cash bail, “deemphasizing” certain felony crimes and prioritizing “restorative justice.” Fox News Digital has reached out to Stein’s office for comment.
Since then, Mecklenburg County Criminal Justice Services has taken in millions from foundations pushing no-cash bail and reduced jail populations, while also hiring “equity consultants” and tasking its Office of Equity and Inclusion with reducing “racial disparities” in the justice system, according to the White House.
In 2020, current CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings told WCCB Charlotte that “law enforcement, in general, is based on racism.” Fox News Digital has reached out to the CMPD on Jennings’ past comments.
“Our entire agency, law enforcement in general, is based on racism. I’ve never really heard that view, but when you have enough people that are saying it’s an issue, you have to pay attention to it,” he told the local outlet in June 2020. “Internally, there’s also work that we can do where we focus more on the violent offenders in some of the discretionary arrests or things that we can probably slow down a little bit on. We can do that as well.”
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The light rail stabbing
Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who had fled the war for safety in America, was fatally stabbed on the city’s light rail while commuting home from her job at a pizzeria on Aug. 22.
The accused killer, Decarlos Brown Jr., had been arrested 14 times previously and had served time in prison.
His lengthy rap sheet, examined by Fox News Digital, spans more than a decade. His convictions include larceny and breaking and entering in 2013, as well as a 2015 conviction for robbery with a dangerous weapon, for which he served more than six years in prison. He was released in 2020 and remained on parole until 2021. More recent charges included communicating threats and misuse of the 911 system earlier this year.
He is now charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Zarutska.
WATCH: Video shows moments before Ukrainian refugee killed on Charlotte train
Viral surveillance video captured the attack. Court documents obtained by Fox News Digital revealed that Zarutska was stabbed three times. A folding knife was found at the scene.
Charlotte transit officials confirmed there were no security officers present on that train car at the time. Extra patrols have since been deployed.
WATCH: Jarring details revealed from suspect’s mother in Charlotte stabbing case
Lawmakers blast ‘soft-on-crime’ policies
President Donald Trump called Brown a “lunatic” and argued the case proves America needs stronger measures to “handle evil.”
Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) called Charlotte’s situation a “microcosm of a national epidemic.”
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) said the Zarutska killing exposes “a justice system unwilling to keep violent, mentally unstable offenders off the streets,” and demanded state-level reforms to prevent similar tragedies.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) criticized what he described as “Democrat-run cities and counties downplaying crime while citizens pay the price.” He urged tougher sentencing, bail reform rollback and more federal-local coordination to take on violent repeat offenders.
CHILLING VIDEO SHOWS MOMENTS BEFORE UKRAINIAN REFUGEE STABBED TO DEATH ON CHARLOTTE LIGHT RAIL
Charlotte’s Democratic leadership has largely emphasized systemic issues in responding to the killing of Zarutska.
“I am heartbroken for the family of Iryna Zarutska, who lost their loved one to this senseless act of violence, and I am appalled by the footage of her murder. We need more cops on the beat to keep people safe,” Stein posted on X on Monday morning. “That’s why my budget calls for more funding to hire more well-trained police officers. I call upon the legislature to pass my law enforcement recruitment and retention package to address vacancies in our state and local agencies so they can stop these horrific crimes and hold violent criminals accountable.”
In remarks first reported by local radio station WFAE, Mayor Vi Lyles framed the stabbing as part of broader challenges tied to mental health and homelessness, warning against “stigmatizing” vulnerable groups.
Days later, she shifted tone, calling the murder a “senseless and tragic loss” and thanking outlets that withheld the graphic surveillance video out of respect for the victim’s family, according to the New York Post.
In a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday, Lyle said that the incident was a “tragic failure by the courts and magistrates.”
“We need a bipartisan solution to address repeat offenders who do not face consequences for their action and those who cannot get treatment for their mental illness and are allowed to be on the streets,” she said, in part. “We have partnered before on legislation like North Carolina’s pre-trial integrity act, and we stand ready to partner again at the local, state and federal level.”
On the city council, Dimple Ajmera told WCNC Charlotte that immediate transit safety reforms were needed, while fellow councilmember Edwin Peacock criticized leaders for being too reactive instead of proactive.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather, in comments to Axios Charlotte, acknowledged that the case exposed major gaps in both the criminal justice process and the mental health system, pointing to resource shortages and legal hurdles that keep dangerous individuals on the street.
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