Tipsheet

Guess Who Charlotte-Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden Says the Real Victims of Violent Crime Are

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  December 10, 2025 9:30 AM

It never fails. The Democratic Party always finds who the "real" victims of crime are, and it's never the people who are hurt or killed by the criminals. Most of the time, the "victims" are the criminals themselves — Democrats will say the violent career felons couldn't help it because they're poor, or mentally ill, or the victims of "systemic racism."

But this is a new one. After the murder of Iryna Zarutska, the Democratic sheriff of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Garry McFadden, has decided that the actual victim of that crime isn't Iryna or even the criminal who stabbed her, Decarlos Brown, Jr.

It's the magistrates who let him go free more than a dozen times.

"Behind the scenes, things that you did not see were that our magistrates were attacked, violently, verbally. When I say violently, on social media, and they lived in fear for many days," McFadden said.

"We had to talk to the magistrates on how to live safely, how to travel safely," McFadden said, adding the shooting of Charlie Kirk made those magistrates "concerned." Of course, the assassination of Charlie Kirk by a Leftist is not the same as the murder of Iryna Zarutska. Decarlos Brown, Jr. was a career criminal with 14 prior arrests when he stabbed Iryna in the neck on a Charlotte light rail train.

If he had been put and kept behind bars for any one of those previous crimes, Iryna would be alive, and no one would be angry with these magistrates.

"That goes for anyone committing political violence. They are also criminals and need to go to jail," Derham wrote.

This is correct.

That's exactly what they're doing. Remember, in the wake of Iryna's stabbing, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles thanked the media that didn't share the video of the murder.

It's also worth noting that McFadden's concerns about magistrates' inability to release people are not about public safety, but about the number of criminals kept in custody.

"So they are going to be more cautious and reluctant to allow people to be released, and we know that the law has provided other guidelines for certain people not to be released. So it will increase our capacity here at the detention center," McFadden said.