President Donald Trump’s Transportation Department is demanding cities address crime on their transit systems after a 23-year-old woman was fatally stabbed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Decarlos Brown Jr. was arrested and released 14 times before transit system video shows he killed 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte, North Carolina’s light-rail system on Aug. 22.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is calling on Chicago and Boston leadership to take immediate action to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in those cities, which are the third- and fourth-largest public transportation systems in the country in terms of ridership. Both cities have cashless bail, a policy that allows criminals to be released without posting any money as a precondition.
“While local leaders seem intent on putting the needs of criminals first, we’re not waiting for the next Iryna,” Duffy said. “Chicago and Boston are on notice to take actions that enhance safety and reduce the crime affecting their riders and transit workers—or risk federal support. This is about standing up for American families who deserve a safe and clean transportation system.”
Duffy wrote letters to acting President Nora Leerhsen of the Chicago Transit Authority and General Manager Phillip Eng of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Crime has plagued both transit systems, as a few recent examples show:
- A Boston commuter was arrested on Thursday after bystander video shows an elderly woman being shoved off a bus and violently slammed to the ground.
- On Sept. 15, a homeless man was charged for attempted sexual assault on a Chicago Transit Authority train in Evanston, Illinois. Man was stabbed on a Chicago Red Line train in Fuller Park on Sept. 14.
- On Sept. 12, police warned of a string of robberies on CTA Red and Blue Line trains.
- A man was charged at the end of August after attacking a CTA worker and pushing him onto the train tracks.
- A child with autism was declared brain-dead after a fight on the CTA Green Line on Aug. 18.