Overview
- Prosecutors say DeCarlos Brown Jr. is charged with fatally stabbing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train and that he was under state supervision at the time.
- Records reviewed by Fox News and provided by Republican officials list offender IDs linked to the NAACP v. Cooper settlement and include one that corresponds to Brown, though officials have not confirmed his release status.
- Roy Cooper’s Senate campaign says Brown was not released under the settlement and defends Cooper’s public-safety record.
- Republican leaders are demanding disclosure of the full release list, and Senate leader Phil Berger says he has the list and asserts Brown was included, escalating calls for transparency.
- The 2021 agreement authorized the early release or transition of about 3,500 inmates, which was initially framed as focused on nonviolent offenders but later acknowledged to include some with violent convictions, fueling scrutiny in the Senate race.