EXCLUSIVE — A leading Republican super PAC is attacking Democrat Roy Cooper, an ex-governor running for Senate in North Carolina, as soft on crime on the two-month anniversary of the fatal train stabbing of Iryna Zarutska.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a group aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), is airing a new ad on Wednesday calling the alleged attacker, Decarlos Brown Jr., one of the “violent criminals arrested and released, repeatedly, under Roy Cooper’s watch.”
The digital ad, first shared with the Washington Examiner, is running mainly in the Charlotte area, where Brown is accused of stabbing Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, in an unprovoked attack on the local light rail. The super PAC is putting four figures behind the ad.
“Roy Cooper’s failed tenure as governor put all North Carolinians at risk and fostered an environment where violent criminals like Decarlos Brown roamed freely as innocent bystanders paid the price,” Alex Latcham, the executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, said in a statement.
“While it’s been two months since Iryna Zarutska’s tragic passing, North Carolinians must never forget what he took from us,” he added.
The ad begins with a video montage of news reports covering the stabbing, before stating that Brown, who has a history of prior arrests and apparent mental illness, was released from prison months after Roy signed an executive order to “reimagine public safety” in 2020.
Roy, who is expected to face Republican Michael Whatley in the North Carolina Senate race, has countered the attacks by noting he signed stricter bail reforms into law while serving as governor and has emphasized his years spent as the state’s attorney general. His campaign also denies any connection between his policies and the murder of Zarutska.
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The executive order in question, signed in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, created a task force for “racial equity in criminal justice,” but it did not publish its recommendations until months after Brown was released from jail for an armed robbery sentence.
“Roy Cooper is the only candidate who spent his career prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars as attorney general, and signing tough on crime laws and stricter bail and pretrial release rules as governor,” a Cooper campaign spokesperson said in a statement. “DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley is desperate to distract from his support for cuts to law enforcement that make North Carolinians less safe.”
The Senate Leadership Fund is just the latest Republican group to tie Roy to Zarutska’s death, with Whatley and even President Donald Trump making similar claims in the days after the stabbing became a national flashpoint over crime.
