Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday announced that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is launching an investigation of North Carolina’s Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) following the horrific murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska which took place on August 22.
According to a press release, the investigation “will review the transit agency’s security spending, safety plans, and ongoing risks to operators and customers being assaulted on the system.” As such, the FTA is requiring CATS to provide plans and actions to “reduce crime and fare evasion on the transit system,” as well as “funds from all sources that are programmed to improve the security of passengers and workers.”
“Despite the media and the Charlotte Mayor’s best efforts to censor this tragedy, we have all seen the horrific images of Iryna Zarutska’s last moments on this earth,” Duffy said in a statement accompanying the press release.
Like many others, Duffy placed blame on the radical left’s soft-on-crime policies for enabling this preventable tragedy.
“Local leader’s soft on crime policies are directly responsible for Iryna’s tragic death, and they will continue to put the traveling public at risk,” he warned, promising that the Trump administration is “taking a whole of government approach to hold these progressive, weak politicians accountable for allowing violent assailants to terrorize our public transit systems.”
“At USDOT, that means investigating CATS and other transit agencies to determine whether they are taking the necessary actions to keep riders and transit workers safe,” he added.
This investigation follows the stabbing death of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska who was brutally killed on the Lynx Blue Line light rail system at the East/West Boulevard station. Decarlos Brown Jr. has been identified as the suspect and has been arrested and charged with murder. He is a repeat offender with prior convictions, and the U.S. Justice Department is seeking the maximum penalty for what Attorney General Pam Bondi described as “this unforgivable crime.”
“Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream — her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people,” Bondi said in an X post on Tuesday.
“I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute DeCarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder,” she continued, explaining they are seeking the “maximum penalty for this unforgivable crime, and he will never again see the light of day as a free man.”
FBI Director Kash Patel also thanked Bondi for “delivering the federal charges that will hold this perpetrator accountable.”
