Charlotte train stabbing: Ex-ESPN host calls on NYC mayor to take action

Former ESPN personality Samantha Ponder called on New York City Mayor Eric Adams to take measures to ensure a brutal killing, like the one that took place in Charlotte, doesn’t happen.

Ponder posted a message on social media in reaction to the killing of Iryna Zarutska. President Donald Trump has since called for Decarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of murder in the stabbing of the woman on a Charlotte light rail car, to face the death penalty.

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Then-ESPN reporter Samantha Ponder in attendance during the BCS Championship game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Alabama Crimson Tide at Sun Life Stadium on Jan. 7, 2013. (Matthew Emmons/USA Today Sports)

The former host wrote that Adams should make it a point to get “clearly unwell and violent men” off the streets.

“I take the subway multiple times a day, every day, with my 3 kids. Every single day we encounter several clearly unwell and violent men,” she wrote on X. “I’ve taught my kids not to make eye contact, to switch train cars even when it’s not our stop & to never get on a nearly empty train. All split second decisions as we try to gauge whether an obviously sick person is going to hurt someone or just continue screaming, knocking things over, etc.

“The horrific video of Iryna’s murder has confirmed my belief that we HAVE to get these men off the streets. Our DAs and judges have failed us. They show the illusion of empathy for the mentally ill… but it is neither loving nor safe to continue to let career criminals roam the streets.”

She tagged Adams’ X account in the post.

Ponder reacted with some of the comments she received over her post. She made clear that what happened in Charlotte and what she deals with in New York aren’t isolated incidents.

IRYNA ZARUTSKA’S FAMILY DEMANDS JUSTICE IN FIRST STATEMENT SINCE ‘HORRIFIC’ STABBING

Then-ESPN reporter Samantha Ponder watches her husband, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder (not pictured) at training camp at Blakeslee Fields, July 27, 2013. (Bruce Kluckhohn/USA Today Sports)

“I don’t know how you live like that. Why subject your kids to degeneracy and violence? So many places to live,” one person wrote.

Ponder responded, “Like Charlotte? Or how about Auburn, Alabama? Maybe Athens? This is happening all over the country. It wasn’t always like this here and it doesn’t have to be.”

When another person told her to move to Arizona, Ponder revealed a harrowing tale from when she was a child.

“I was followed to school at age 5 by an exposed child molester in Arizona. Had a kidnapper try to pull me inside his van at a bus stop in Arizona. Should I go on? There’s a lot more,” she wrote.

Brown was arrested soon after the stabbing and charged with first-degree murder. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice charged Brown with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

Records obtained by Fox News Digital showed that Brown has a history of arrests going back more than a decade, including convictions for felony larceny and felony breaking and entering in 2013, and a 2015 conviction for robbery with a dangerous weapon that sent him to prison for more than six years. He was released in 2020 but remained on parole until 2021, and subsequent charges against him included communicating threats and misuse of the 911 system earlier this year.

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Trump has since called on cities to end cashless bail.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

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