CHARLOTTE — Interim CATS CEO Brent Cagle revealed Tuesday night that CATS believes Decarlos Brown didn’t buy a ticket when he boarded the bus that dropped him off at the transit center, and he didn’t buy a ticket when he got on the light rail, where police say he stabbed Iryna Zarutska to death.
While CATS is vowing to address fare evasion more aggressively, CATS officials say Brown didn’t give any indication he was about to commit a heinous act while he was on board.
Still, several councilmembers want to know why he was allowed to ride in the first place.
“Mr. Brown entered the transit system via bus. He rode it, and it does not appear he presented a pass or a ticket,” Cagle said. “He rode to the transit center, where he transferred to the Blue Line and rode out to South End.”
With CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings and Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather in the crowd, Charlotte City Councilmembers grilled CATS leadership about the light rail’s highest-profile crime in its nearly two-decade existence.
Councilmember Dimple Ajmera said if fares had been enforced that night, Zarutska may still be alive.
“He may not have been able to board the bus to begin with,” she said. “That means our controls would have worked and we would have been able to save Iryna Zarutska’s life.”
Cagle says CATS bus operators are trained not to engage with fare evaders for safety reasons. He says bus drivers have the ability to discreetly call for security when they are worried about safety. But he says Brown didn’t act out of the ordinary.
“He appeared to be someone who was using transit and going about his business,” Cagle said. “He did not exhibit erratic or other signs that this was going on with him.”
Cagle is vowing to step up fare enforcement and says the company the transit system contracts with for security is down about 32 people. They hope to be fully staffed by the end of the year. Councilman Malcolm Graham asked CATS to study whether CMPD officers can fill in the gaps until the hires are made.
Even with all of this in place, Cagle warned the council it won’t be a perfect system.
“With an open system, it will always be impossible to check every passenger, every day, on every vehicle,” he said.
CATS will present to the Metropolitan Transit Commission on Wednesday morning. The MTC sets policy for CATS.
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