CMPD Releases Footage of Interaction with Decarlos Brown

CMPD Releases Footage of Interaction Decarlos Brown

CMPD this week released footage of an interaction between police and Decarlos Brown months before Brown was arrested for the murder of Iryna Zarutska on a Blue Line train car in South End.

Brown’s arrest for misuse of 911 in January has been the subject of speculation by those who insist he should have been incarcerated due to his previous criminal history. The January incident was a minor one and Brown had already served time for his more serious crimes.

The footage does give a glimpse at the mind state of Brown, who has repeatedly refused to take medication for his schizophrenia diagnosis, according to family members.

On Jan. 19, officers responded to a welfare call placed by Decarlos Brown on Hawthorne Lane. Upon their arrival, Brown informed officers that he believed he had somehow consumed a “man-made material” that had taken control of his body. He would later claim the same material led him to murder Zarutska during jailhouse calls to family members.

During the January interaction, officers told Brown to seek medical attention, which made him visibly upset as he insisted that CMPD investigate his concerns. Brown called 911 a second time while the officers were still on the scene. He was placed under arrest and charged with misuse of the 911 system.

According to a release accompanying Tuesday’s footage, police did not pursue an involuntary commitment against Brown because he did not express intent to harm himself or others during the interaction, which lasted 28 minutes.

The department states that officers and CMPD’s Community Policing Crisis Response Team had responded to three previous calls placed by Brown in 2024 regarding similar concerns about the “man-made material.” During those encounters, services and assistance were offered but ultimately declined by Brown.

Decarlos Brown served five years in prison following a 2014 armed robbery. After that, Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office records show a 2022 arrest for assault on a female and injury to property.

That arrest stemmed from an incident in which Brown attacked his sister, for which she refused to press charges, seeking mental health services for her brother instead. Brown was committed to a local facility following that incident but could only be held for 14 days against his will.

City Council Approves Half of Proposed Community Area Plans

The Charlotte City Council voted 9-1 on Monday to adopt seven Charlotte Future 2040 Community Area Plans, a two-year effort that localizes the implementation of the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan.

Staff with the city’s Planning, Design & Development Department engaged residents across the city to shape each respective plan, creating strategies for land development, transportation and infrastructure improvements, community amenities and services.

“Community Area Plans are the next step in planning the future of individual Charlotte communities,” said Monica Holmes, interim planning director. “By working alongside residents, these plans preserve, enhance and celebrate communities while providing detailed strategies and actions to guide growth and development.”

The planning process resulted in the production of 14 geographic areas that collectively cover the entire city and a Revised Policy Map. The seven approved Community Area Plans included East Inner, Northeast Inner, South Inner, South Middle, South Outer, Southwest Middle and Southwest Outer.

Council deferred action on the seven remaining plans until March 23, 2026, to undergo additional review and community engagement, with a focus on existing neighborhoods and anti-displacement efforts: East Middle & Outer, North Inner, North Middle and Outer, Northeast Middle and Outer, West Inner, West Middle and West Outer.

View the Community Area Plan executive summary for all 14 plans here. Learn more at the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan website.

CMPD to Launch Drone Program Following Council Vote

Charlotte City Council on Monday also approved a five-year contract with Motorola Solutions, Inc. to provide, implement and maintain drones and related systems for CMPD’s new Drones as First Responders Program. LaWana Mayfield and Tiawana Brown cast the only No votes, though there was no discussion leading up to the vote.

CMPD states that drones would be used for “rapid deployment for emergency situations, search and rescue, traffic management and crime scene monitoring.” Other departments around the state have implemented similar drone programs, including in Mooresville, as was discussed in a recent episode of WFAE’s Charlotte Talks.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has spoken against the proliferation of drones in domestic law enforcement, acknowledging that there are good uses such as searching for missing people while voicing concerns about other uses including monitoring protests. The organization has taken a hard-line stance against using drones for patrols.

“We don’t want to end up in a nightmare scenario where drones are used for mass surveillance and the experience of having police flying cameras buzzing overhead becomes routine in people’s daily lives,” wrote Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “As we have long warned, it is not a stretch to imagine a police department deploying a swarm of cheap, autonomous craft that automatically fan out across a region, trade shifts with other drones, and dock themselves at charging stations in between.”

CMPD has no current plans to use drones for patrols, and ACLU is only aware of one department that does so in the country: the Beverly Hills Police Department in California.

Chris Paul Announces Retirement in Charlotte with Family, Friends

Current LA Clippers guard and former Wake Forest star Chris Paul formally announced his retirement while in town to play against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night, with around 100 family members and friends in attendance to see him out.

Twenty students from NC A&T’s Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports class, the creation of which was funded by the Chris Paul Family Foundation, were also on hand on Saturday for Career Day at Spectrum Center, getting a behind-the-scenes tour before the game.

“Chris Paul’s retirement isn’t just the end of a 21-year career — it’s the beginning of a legacy built to change who gets to shape the future of sports,” read a release announcing Saturday’s event, which took place during the last game he will play in his home state.

“By rooting his farewell tour in education, access, and real pathways into the industry, Paul is addressing one of the most pressing gaps in the sports world: the lack of Black professionals behind the scenes. His commitment ensures that the next generation won’t just play the game — they’ll report it, lead it, negotiate it, and own it. This moment marks more than a milestone; it’s a movement.”

Third Murder of the Year Reported on Wallingford Street

CMPD last weekend reported the second murder on Wallingford Street in just six weeks. The area surrounding the intersection of Wallingford and West Exmore streets, surrounded by shopping centers, restaurants and hotels, has seen three murders thus far in 2025.

The discovery of the most recent incident happened just after 2 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, when officers responded to a shooting call and found a person dead from a gunshot wound. They have not yet identified the victim or announced any arrests at the time of this writing.

The previous killing at the same site happened on Oct. 10, when 53-year-old Ronald Neville was killed during an apparent robbery. Three men have been arrested in connection with Neville’s killing, charged with felony murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony conspiracy.

In the map above showing homicides that have occurred in Charlotte this year, black markers signify deaths by gun violence, green markers signify killings that may be deemed justified, red markers signify stabbings, yellow markers signify murder by vehicle, purple markers signify deaths by trauma or unknown cause, and blue markers signify police killings.

Before that, in April, 37-year-old Stanley Williams II was stabbed to death in the same area. Police arrested a 35-year-old suspect and charged him with murder two weeks after that incident.

Queen City Nerve has tracked 95 murders in the city thus far this year, compared to 115 at the same point in 2024.