The city of Charlotte is facing criticism for greenlighting a $3.4 million marketing initiative for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), following a series of stabbings on its light-rail system.
This month, the Charlotte City Council decided to engage a Texas-based company for a long-term communications and branding project for CATS. While city officials insist the contract is not linked to the recent violent incidents on the light-rail and that the timing is purely coincidental, skepticism remains.
Mecklenburg County GOP Chairperson Kyle Kirby expressed his doubts to Fox News Digital, suggesting that the expensive public relations effort is a “cover-up” strategy as the city struggles with safety concerns.
“It’s quite shocking that the city would spend $3.4 million on a PR campaign to mask the security issues on the light rail instead of investing in tangible safety improvements, like enclosed platforms or deploying a police officer on every train,” he remarked.
The contract coincides with recent stabbing incidents on the Blue Line trains, such as the case of Kenyon Dobie. The suspect, Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, has a criminal record in the U.S. and has been deported twice, according to the Justice Department. (GoFundMe; Mecklenburg County Jail)
Two stabbings in less than four months
This marketing move comes amidst the backdrop of increasing concerns over safety on CATS trains following the attacks.
Aug. 22:
Iryna Zarutska, 23, was commuting home on public transportation when she was stabbed to death, allegedly by Decarlos Brown Jr., 34.
The attack was captured on CATS’ surveillance footage and showed the young commuter cowering as her alleged killer towered behind her.
WATCH: Video shows moments before woman stabbed to death on Charlotte light rail
Dec. 5:
According to police, on Dec. 5, Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, 33, stabbed Kenyon Kareem-Shemar Dobie on the light rail system during an argument. Prior to the attack, he broke into a railroad car “with the intent to commit a felony” while carrying a large fixed-blade knife, authorities said.
While intoxicated, he challenged Dobie to a fight, cursing and shouting at others and using “unintelligible and slurred words,” according to court documents.
He was arrested by responding Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers as he walked away from the scene. Dobie was taken to a hospital with a stab wound to the upper left chest and survived, police said.
Solorzano-Garcia is charged with one count of illegal reentry by a removed alien and one count of committing an act of violence on a mass transportation system.
A view of the memorial dedicated to slain 23-year-old Ukrainian Iryna Zarutska at the East/West Blvd light rail station in Charlotte on Sept. 11, 2025. (Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Kirby pointed to these past incidents as evidence of the city prioritizing optics rather than public safety.
“$3.4 million could have been spent better going to the Sheriff’s Department to enforce Iryna’s Law to help keep violent criminals behind bars,” he said. “But instead, the city council decides that their top priority is to allocate that money for a totally unneeded set of circumstances, like putting that toward a public relations campaign.”
Kirby said that following the stabbings, the public transportation has been “very empty.”
“If you were to get on the light rail today and ride it from the bottom of the tracks all the way up to UNC Charlotte, you would see a very empty rail car because people are afraid,” he said.
Sheriff Garry McFadden discussed Iryna’s Law on Monday, Dec. 8. (Mecklenburg’s County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook)
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden has argued that the community’s fear is, in part, due to the media shaping public perception.
“And we believe that the only reason that this caught national attention is because it was caught on video and it was displayed across the United States, and our local politicians at that time saw it was a political agenda, or they could highlight her as a refugee and not an immigrant,” McFadden said. “This is why they created Iryna’s Law.”
Kirby has said that both stabbings were preventable if proactive policing was implemented.
“Perception in this case is absolutely reality,” he said.
“The Sheriff’s Department, just a month before this, refused to help Border Patrol with their immigration enforcement in Charlotte,” he said of the Dec. 5 case.
He added that Zarutska’s killing could have been prevented “had Mecklenburg magistrates and judges taken violent criminal offenders seriously and not released them on their own recognizance.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office and CATS for comment.
