Charlotte rail murder draws sparring of Cooper against Whatley, Vance

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(The Center Square) – Roy Cooper, in the wake of unrest caused by a Charlotte light rail train murder, is publicly tussling Wednesday with Vice President J.D. Vance and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley.

Whatley on Tuesday drew out the previously silent Cooper, a former governor and his opponent in the 2026 race for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Thom Tillis. The engagements continued with Cooper’s record for settling litigation – the release of 3,500 inmates early – with the NAACP during the COVID-19 era of 2021 butting up against Republican policy for federal funding of law enforcement.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, was killed while aboard the Lynx Blue Line light rail train about 10 p.m. Aug. 22 alongside Camden Road near the East/West station, according to the Charlotte Area Transit System video. Decarlos Brown Jr., arrested a 15th time in as many years, is charged with first-degree murder on the state level and charged on the federal level with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

While in the local news immediately, the story went viral over the weekend and into this week when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police released video from the transit system. Congressional proposals are in the works; state Republicans in the U.S. House have requested the chief judge in the district remove the magistrate signing off on cashless bail for Brown in January; and a probe of safety and budget for the transit system is underway by the state auditor.

While those in the train car shockingly didn’t come to the 23-year-old’s aid for a couple of minutes, an audience across the nation is heavily weighing in.

Comments from Democratic fourth-term Mayor Vi Lyles, a primary winner on Tuesday in Charlotte, and first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein have been heavily criticized as tone deaf. Both parties, however, have policy goals to push or defend tied to the killing.

Cooper on Tuesday said, “The murder of Iryna Zarutska is a horrible tragedy and we must do everything we can to keep people safe. Only a cynical D.C. insider would think it’s acceptable to use her death for political points, especially one who supported cutting funding to law enforcement in” North Carolina.

He added, “I’ve been attorney general and governor, dedicating my career to putting violent criminals behind bars and keeping them there. It’s time Michael Whatley and the GOP get serious in Washington about funding our law enforcement, and that’s what I’ll do as senator.”

His comments were pointed at Whatley yet accurately fit his friend Stein. For it was Stein, in his first comments on Monday, going straight to the state budget stalemate and request for more police funding in the second sentence.

Late Tuesday night, Vance responded to Cooper, “Law enforcement arrested this thug 14 times. It wasn’t law enforcement that failed. It was weak politicians like you who kept letting him out of prison.”

And Whatley chimed in Wednesday, “Law enforcement did their job and arrested this thug 14 times – you repeatedly failed to do yours.”

Cooper’s response midday was, “If you’re really concerned about the safety of North Carolinians, Mr. Vice President, you would reverse the federal cuts to local and state law enforcement that you and Michael Whatley championed so that our police have the tools to keep North Carolinians safe.”

Cooper served as state attorney general from 2001-16 and governor the next eight years. In 2019, the Republican majorities of the General Assembly passed the Survivor Act. It appropriated money to address more than 16,000 shelved rape kits at the state crime lab piling up for decades.

Stein, as attorney general in his eighth and final year at the helm, on April 10, 2024, proudly announced the backlog cleared with DNA matches and more than 100 arrests.

At Cooper’s direction in 2020, Stein and Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls led the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. Following their final report, Stein said, “Our report identifies opportunities for real change to make the criminal justice system fairer for every North Carolinian.” Earls added, “Today’s report is a next step towards the actions that North Carolina must take to end racial disparities in the criminal justice system, not the final word.”

Two months later, on Feb. 25, 2021, Cooper’s administration got a dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People charging unsafe prison conditions during the coronavirus pandemic. The settlement was for early release of 3,500 inmates, about one-eighth of the state prison population.

The terms were 90 days to release at least 1,500, and another 90 days for the remaining 2,000.

Late Wednesday morning, Vance offered another sobering reminder. With a still image of Zarutska, he wrote on social media, “Daniel Penny prevented this from happening on a NYC subway. Instead of thanking him, many hated him for it.”

And about 1 p.m., Whatley said to Cooper, “You put North Carolina police officers in danger when your soft-on-crime policies force them to rearrest the same serial criminals over and over. The police did their job. You failed to do yours every day of the 39 years you were in office.”

Cooper nor Whatley is expected to have challengers in the potential primaries on Super Tuesday, March 3. Each is filed with the Federal Elections Commission and the state filing period for the office is Dec. 1-19.

The race is projected to be the most expensive ever for a U.S. Senate seat, with dollar figures ranging from half a billion to $750 million.