Trump Rips Roy Cooper Over Zarutska Killing at NC Rally

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President Trump traveled to North Carolina on Monday to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, using much of his speech to attack Whatley’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, over violent crime. Trump invoked the killing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was fatally stabbed aboard a Charlotte light-rail train last year, telling the crowd, “The animal who murdered Iryna Zarutska should never have been on your streets.”

Trump went further, claiming, “Cooper released him and 3,500 violent criminals from prison after he cut a deal with radical activists,” and telling the crowd “Cooper was really bad” on crime as governor. He said North Carolina was “one of the worst” states in the country and pointed to the state’s cash-bail rules as a driving factor, arguing dangerous offenders were being allowed to stay on the streets awaiting trial.

Details & Background

The man charged in Zarutska’s killing, DeCarlos Brown Jr., had 14 prior arrests and was found incompetent to stand trial earlier this year, delaying both his state and federal cases. The attack, captured on transit video, became a flashpoint in the national debate over urban crime and bail policy, and Trump has returned to it repeatedly on the campaign trail this month.

The 3,500-release figure Trump cited is real, but it traces back to a court-ordered settlement reached in February 2021 after a civil rights lawsuit sought COVID-19 protections for inmates, not a discretionary policy Cooper chose on his own. Independent fact-checkers, including North Carolina’s WRAL, have also found that Brown was released in September 2020, roughly five months before that settlement was finalized, meaning his release could not have resulted from the agreement Trump described.

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Cooper has defended his record by pointing to falling crime rates during his second term, saying, “Crime was down statewide in the first half of this year,” and noting he “signed legislation that made it tougher on gang leaders and tougher on pretrial release.” Asked directly about the prison settlement in a CNN interview last week, Cooper suggested the plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit wanted even more inmates released than his administration ultimately authorized, saying “a lot of people believe, if you ask the plaintiffs, they were very frustrated that more weren’t released.”

Whatley has echoed Trump’s attacks throughout the campaign, vowing to “put dangerous criminals behind bars” if elected, while Cooper’s campaign has pushed back by highlighting a Whatley associate’s past sex-offense conviction. Neither side has backed off the crime fight as the centerpiece of the race, which carries broader structural headwinds for Whatley: polling over the summer showed Cooper with at least a slight lead, and Whatley has trailed him in recent fundraising. Still, Republicans note North Carolina hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 2008, and Trump has carried the state in all three of his presidential runs, an advantage Whatley is counting on to close the gap with roughly seven weeks until Election Day.

Why This Matters to You

The Zarutska case has become a proxy battle over cash bail and pretrial release policy nationwide, and North Carolina’s Senate race is now a direct test of whether that argument moves swing voters. Whatever the precise facts of Brown’s release turn out to be, the emotional weight of Zarutska’s death means the case will likely keep shaping the race through November.

For North Carolina voters, the dispute over the 3,500-release figure is a reminder to look past a rally line to the underlying record: the settlement was court-ordered rather than a policy choice, and the specific claim about Brown’s release has been disputed by fact-checkers, even as the broader debate over bail reform and public safety remains a live and legitimate one for both candidates to make their case on.