State legislators hammered Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden with questions about his cooperation with ICE, jail deaths, and jail programs for more than two hours Monday morning.
The hearing was to focus on last year’s stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail.
Committee Chairman Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) opened the hearing by placing responsibility for her death on elected officials and administrators in the largely Democratic city and county.
“Her life was cut short, not by one individual, but by a system that allowed career criminals to roam your streets who had 14 arrests,” Jones said.
The man charged in Zarutska’s stabbing death had a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
But for most of the hearing, there was scant mention of Zarutska.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, Police Chief Estella Patterson, Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones and District Attorney Spencer Merriweather answered gentle questions and even accepted some praise.
“You light up a room that you always walk in,” Jones told Lyles.
Legislators trained most of their criticism on McFadden.
He declined to answer some questions, citing an SBI investigation that grew from a petition seeking his removal from office.
Rep. Carla Cunningham, a Charlotte Democrat and one of the petitioners seeking McFadden’s removal, is an oversight committee member.
Jones criticized McFadden for not taking responsibility for problems, while McFadden said he was being singled out because he is progressive and is a Black sheriff.
“I am different from most other sheriffs,” he said. “We were called every name before we got here. ‘Those sheriffs. The ‘woke’ sheriffs,’” he said.
“It’s unusual for a sheriff to be outspoken,” he said. “It’s unusual for a sheriff to take a stance and respect the law.”
Several active lawsuits claim negligence that resulted in the deaths of jail inmates. Last year, the county agreed to pay $550,000 to the estate of a 17-year-old who committed suicide in the jail.
Questioned about the 21 deaths in the county jail since he took office in 2018, McFadden said people come to the jail with untreated health conditions.
“People die every day across America,” he said, even in hospitals that have trained healthcare professionals and the latest technology.
Charlotte’s overall crime rate dropped 9% last year, a drop that included a 21% decrease in violent crime, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Patterson, who was sworn in as chief in early December, said her priorities are further reductions in violent crime, filling job vacancies, and reversing negative perceptions of the city’s safety.
“I think that people think Charlotte is an unsafe city, although our numbers show otherwise,” she said.
Jones offered an open invitation to city leaders to work with legislators.
“I want that city to be the shining gem of North Carolina I know it can be,” he said.
Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe) said the focus on Charlotte crime is Republicans’ attempt to distract from the fact that they did not approve a budget last year.
“I really think we should look ourselves in the mirror and lead by example by passing a state budget” with sufficient funds for public safety across the state, he said.
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