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Sheriff Says Real Victims Of Charlie Kirk, Iryna Zarutska’s Murders Are Actually Judges

[Screenshot/WCNC Charlotte]

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden stated on Tuesday that the magistrates who have faced criticisms for their handling of violent criminals are the victims following the murders of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.

McFadden lamented how the magistrates in the area have been “attacked” and live in fear following the assassination of Kirk in Utah on Sept. 10. After the assassination, he added that they have feared that they will be killed because of Kirk’s murder and the release of the suspect charged with killing Zarutska.

“Behind the scenes thing that you did not see is that our magistrate were attacked violently, verbally, when I say violently, on social media and they lived in fear for many days and we took additional measures to protect them because of the violent nature of social media and parts of other media and also just the violence that they received just personally,” McFadden said. “And so they live in fear now and I have to say that because for an entire day we had to talk to the magistrates on how to live safely, how to travel safely and in the middle of all of that they were concerned after the shooting of Charlie Kirk because they said to me, well what if they shoot me because of this?” 

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McFadden said that judges will be more reluctant to release any criminals going forward because of the threats. He referred to “Iryna’s Law,” a piece of legislation named after Zarutska, who was murdered on a train in Charlotte.

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

Decarlos Brown Jr., a mentally ill homeless man with 14 prior arrests, is charged with fatally stabbing Zarutska on a light rail train in August. Despite his lengthy criminal history, Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes released Brown from custody in January based on his written promise to appear for a future court date.

The recently passed legislation, which took effect on Dec. 1, requires anyone convicted of three Class 1 misdemeanors or higher offenses in the last ten years to be held in jail or house arrest. It also directs judges to order mental health evaluations for defendants who were involuntarily committed in the past three years or are a danger to the community. It further prevents judges from releasing defendants on a “written promise to appear.”

Weeks after Zarutska’s murder, Kirk was fatally shot by alleged assassin Tyler Robinson, whose parents told authorities that he had become more left-wing and had become more passionate about gay and trans rights issues.