Inside the legislative auditorium at the North Carolina state legislative building, Monday morning started in a rather contentious manner.
“We’re here for incompetence,” shouted NC House Majority Leader Brenden Jones. “And we’re going to get to the bottom of this crisis today,” he added after speaking of Charlotte’s handling of the stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska and immigration enforcement.
For roughly three hours, Jones and other members of the Oversight & Reform Committee peppered questions upon Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden and his response to the former.
“I cannot stand here and watch you chastise me from doing the same thing that every other sheriff across the world,” McFadden said during the hearing’s recess.
Lawmakers delivered a stark contrast between McFadden’s morning testimony and that of the afternoon, which featured Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, City Attorney Spencer B. Merriweather III, and Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson, who previously served as Raleigh police chief.
“I’m here in my official capacity as a chief of police,” Patterson said at the conclusion of her testimony. “What we’re doing to reduce crime, to make our community safe. I can’t speak to what the sheriff is doing. He’s an elected official doing his job.”
Jones and his colleagues appeared to have a different tone and tenor before and after the lunch recess.
“As majority leader, all the citizens are my district now. So you got a friend in my office. Anything that you need, please reach out to us, let us help you,” Jones said to Patterson. “Mayor, it’s always good to see you. You light up a room you always walk in,” he told Lyles.
Meanwhile, Patterson stopped short of disagreeing with Jones and his assessment of law enforcement leadership in Charlotte.
“I think it was a strong statement,” she said. “But it gave us an opportunity for us to really talk about what we’re doing in Charlotte and how we’re going to make an impact and make sure that our city is safe. I think that all our residents or citizens are owed that. And I’m just happy that we had the opportunity to talk about it.”
Jones said he wants Charlotte to be the “shining gem” he believes it can be.
“We don’t want you making national news for the wrong reasons,” he said in reference to Zarutska’s death and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the city.
“We started talking about incompetence, and I do think there are some things we can do in the legislature that we haven’t done,” added Buncombe County representative Eric Ager.
One of those things is the lack of a state budget for the current fiscal year that lawmakers have yet to pass.
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