Ex-ESPN host calls on NYC mayor to take 'clearly unwell and violent men' off streets after Charlotte stabbing

Tuesday's panel on CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip" got into a tense debate about the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina last month.

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