The fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train has put a spotlight on former Gov. Roy Cooper’s record on criminal justice in the high-stakes North Carolina Senate race.
Cooper, a Democrat, is facing Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman, for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). Crime has become a flashpoint in the race after the release of video footage showing Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, sitting unsuspectingly in front of her would-be killer before he stood up and brutally stabbed her on a commuter train.
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Police identified the suspect as Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, who has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for armed robbery, felony larceny, and breaking and entering. Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have called for the death penalty in the case and blamed lenient policies by Democrats and judges for Brown being free to kill.
Central to that debate is Cooper’s 2020 Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, created after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The panel issued over 100 recommendations, from limiting cash bail for misdemeanors to expanding racial equity training for prosecutors. While the Republican-led legislature never adopted many proposals, some elements have been implemented, including new law enforcement training standards and accreditation programs.
Supporters argue the task force helped modernize parts of the justice system and address racial disparities. Critics contend it set a tone of leniency, a charge Republicans have revived in the wake of the Charlotte stabbing. Pointing to Brown’s lengthy record and repeated releases, the National Republican Senatorial Committee launched a digital ad this week tying the killing directly to Cooper, accusing him of pursuing “soft-on-crime” policies as governor.
Whatley, the Republican nominee, has kept up a steady drumbeat on social media. “It’s been 18 days since Iryna Zarutska was murdered on the Charlotte Light Rail, and we still haven’t heard from Roy Cooper himself,” he posted Tuesday, before slamming the governor for failing to prevent repeat offenders from returning to the streets.
When Cooper later condemned the killing as “a horrible tragedy” and accused Republicans of exploiting it for political gain, Whatley shot back: “Law enforcement did their job and arrested this thug 14 times – YOU repeatedly FAILED to do yours.”
The criticism has spread beyond the state. Vice President JD Vance amplified the attack, writing on X that “weak politicians like you… kept letting him out of prison.” Cooper responded directly on X Wednesday: “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.”
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) also weighed in, telling the Washington Examiner that the case “shows you [Cooper’s] bad policies and how dangerous they are to people in some of the great cities of our state.”
Budd pointed to the suspect’s repeated releases from jail as a failure of leadership: “This guy had been released 14 times, and now she’s dead.”
He added, “This goes back to Roy Cooper and setting the tone for some very bad policies in our state. We want people, whether they’re rural or whether they’re in an urban setting, to be safe 24/7, wherever they are. And the policies of Roy Cooper didn’t lead to that.”
Cooper’s campaign stressed that the governor has a long record of prosecuting violent offenders, raising penalties for assaults on law enforcement, and keeping criminals behind bars. They described the Charlotte killing as a “despicable act of evil” and said Zarutska’s family remains in their prayers. His team accused Whatley of distorting the facts to cover for his support of federal policies that reduced funding for local police.
Republicans argue the episode shows how Cooper is facing a new level of scrutiny as a Senate candidate.
A North Carolina GOP operative noted that although many of the task force’s proposals never became law, the recommendations, from eliminating cash bail to broad reforms critics describe as “coddling criminals,” now look far more significant in the glare of a statewide campaign. “There are people digging into it, and that’s why this has become the opening salvo in the Senate race,” the strategist said.
Democrats, meanwhile, caution against oversimplifying the task force’s role. Doug Wilson, a North Carolina Democratic strategist, said the panel was created to improve coordination between police and the communities they serve, not to weaken public safety.
“The title to a Republican strategist or Republican elected official may sound very progressive, but it was just trying to make sure that police and the communities that they serve were in sync,” he said.
Wilson argued the Charlotte attack resulted from several failures, from lax ticket enforcement to reliance on private security, rather than policies from Cooper’s tenure. He predicted Republicans will continue to raise the stabbing as a campaign issue, and said Democrats must be ready.
“Being tough on crime doesn’t make you a bad Democrat,” Wilson said. “It makes you a Democrat who wants to make sure that his or her community is safe and that the communities that are served by police officers are in sync.”
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Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Whatley is likely to keep pressing the issue because it fits squarely into the GOP’s broader crime message.
“Because it’s on video and because it’s consistent with Republican rhetoric that cities have gotten out of control, I think he’s certainly going to lean into this issue and try to lay blame at the feet of Roy Cooper and at the feet of cities controlled by Democrats,” he said.
But he noted the political limits, arguing that it is “a big stretch” to link a local stabbing to the former governor’s power or to the task force. “I don’t think most voters are going to make that kind of connection,” Cooper said. “But can it mobilize the Republican base? Yeah, I think it might help a little.”
