Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Monday threatened to revoke federal funding from Charlotte, North Carolina, after a young woman died in a stabbing on the city’s transit system.
Duffy was the latest administration official to speak on the murder of Iryna Zarutska, 23. Although she died last month, surveillance footage of the fatal incident went viral on social media over the weekend.
“If mayors can’t keep their trains and buses safe, they don’t deserve the taxpayers’ money,” Duffy announced on X. The Department of Transportation “will be investigating Charlotte over its failure to protect Iryna Zarutska. And we will also be looking at other crime ridden cities across the country.”
Duffy also spoke about actions his department is willing to take on Fox News’s weeknight show Hannity, such as the possibility of withholding federal transit funding from Charlotte.
“Maybe it’s appropriate that we start pulling some of that money back because I don’t think the American taxpayer wants to pay for the homelessness and criminal elements that harm little 23-year-old girls like this,” the Cabinet secretary told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “And liberals want to hide that story, so you and I don’t talk about it.”
Duffy said the Department of Transportation’s investigation begins Tuesday, noting he couldn’t broadly pull Charlotte’s federal funding without an investigation.
The city’s fiscal 2026 budget includes $38.29 million in federal grants allocated to the Charlotte Area Transit System, a 40.6% increase from the previous fiscal year. It’s unclear how much federal funding will be pulled at this time, but Duffy said he anticipates all of it is on the table “if I find what I think I’m going to find.”
Around 10 p.m. on Aug. 22, Zarutska was stabbed in the neck three times by a violent repeat offender released on cashless bail over a dozen times. She was taking the train back home from her job at a pizzeria. Zarutska was a Ukrainian refugee who fled her native country after Russia’s invasion in 2022.
The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., has an extensive criminal history dating back to 2014. His past crimes include armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering, and shoplifting, according to jail records. For his latest crime, Brown is being charged with first-degree murder and is being held in jail without bond. He is next due to appear in court on Sept. 19.
The Trump administration began denouncing Zarutska’s murderer on Monday, with President Donald Trump himself talking about the issue in a speech and on social media. In a Truth Social post, he blamed her death on North Carolina’s soft-on-crime policies overseen by former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who left office earlier this year.
“What the hell was [Brown] doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP,” Trump said. “The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and ‘Wannabe Senator’ Roy Cooper.”
The president then called on North Carolina voters to support 2026 Senate contender Michael Whatley, who Trump said “won’t let this happen again” in the state.
While Zarutska’s preventable death only came to the attention of the masses a few days ago, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau has been investigating the Charlotte train stabbing since “day one.” He noted that updates in the case will be forthcoming.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT FATAL STABBING OF UKRAINIAN REFUGEE ON CHARLOTTE’S LIGHT RAIL
Meanwhile, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles took a less aggressive posture than the Trump administration. She said it wasn’t appropriate for the media and public to share the video of the events preceding and following Zarutska’s death “out of respect” for her family, to whom the mayor offered her condolences. Her comments sparked outrage from right-wing commentators and Duffy, who suggested Lyles is responsible for the city’s policies allowing Brown to commit another crime.
“Charlotte’s Mayor doesn’t want the media to show you the ugly truth. Why? Because she and other public officials in her city bear responsibility,” Duffy wrote. “By failing to properly punish him, Charlotte failed Iryna Zarutska and North Carolinians.”
