The man accused of fatally stabbing a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte Area Transit System train in North Carolina last month has been charged with a federal crime.
Decarlos Brown Jr. is accused of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system in the Aug. 22 stabbing, according to the Justice Department.
The victim, whom police identified as Iryna Zarutska, had recently come to the United States from Ukraineto escape the war with Russia, according to her family. Zarutska started working immediately after she got her work permit, helping at a senior citizens center and a pizza place and taking care of neighborhood animals, James Barnacle, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Division, said at a news briefing Tuesday afternoon.
A statement from her family’s lawyer, Lauren O. Newton, said Zarutska was “kind and hardworking” and deeply loved by family and close friends.
“Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way,” a family spokesperson said in the statement.
Zarutska had also recently moved in with her partner, Barnacle said. The family statement said she was taking community college courses to improve her English.
Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream. Her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Brown has a criminal history spanning over a decade, including felony breaking and entering and robbery with a dangerous weapon, for which he served a five-year prison sentence, according to court records.
“I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute DeCarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder,” Bondi said. “We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence.”
Tragedy on public transit
The FBI said in a complaint it filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina that Zarutska got on the LYNX blue line train at 9:46 p.m. and sat in front of Brown.
“At approximately 21:50 hours, Brown pulled a knife from his pocket and unfolded the knife before striking the victim three times from behind,” the complaint says. “Following the attack, suspected blood can be seen dripping onto the floor as Brown walked away from the victim.”
The family lawyer’s statement said relatives became concerned when Zarutska, who had texted her partner to say she was en route to their residence, hadn’t arrived within a reasonable time.
“Her phone’s location alerted them that she was still at the station,” it said. “Upon arriving at the station, they were devastated to learn that Iryna had died at the scene.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers responded to the 1800 block of Camden Road. The victim was in the rear car of the train near “a large amount of blood, with a single stab wound in the middle of her neck,” the complaint says.
Investigators found a pocketknife and a red shirt soaked in “suspected blood” at the scene, according to the complaint. Brown was arrested on the outbound LYNX blue line platform at the station where the incident was reported. He was initially charged with first-degree murder.
The brutal attack on Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte Light Rail was a disgraceful act that should never happen in America,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “The FBI jumped to assist in this investigation immediately to ensure justice is served and the perpetrator is never released from jail to kill again.”
Brown was in state custody Tuesday, said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson, who also spoke at the news briefing Tuesday. Ferguson said more federal charges could be filed.
If he is convicted, Brown would face life in prison without parole or the death sentence, according to the Justice Department.
Zarutska’s killing has drawn national attention, including from politicians on the right.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller blamed the Democratic Party for the incident, accusing judges and politicians from the party of protecting Brown.
On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Moore, R-NC., led an effort calling for the removal of Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes, who he said released Brown following a written promise that he would appear in court.
This tragedy was preventable. There must be accountability. North Carolinians deserve better,” Moore wrote on X.
The sentiment that Brown, a repeat offender, should not have been out on the streets is shared by many.
“Where exactly did the system fail? It’s hard to say. This man was charged 14 times,” Barnacle said. “There’s been numerous encounters with police departments. He was arrested by the CMPD in January, but he’s still on our streets, so we’ll have to figure this out.”
Brown’s mental capacity has been called into question. Barnacle and Ferguson did not specifically comment on the topic.
Ultimately, a judge will decide if he is competent to stand trial or not,” Ferguson said. “But one thing is for sure, this person cannot be allowed on the streets. He cannot be allowed on our trains.”
Asked whether some politicians may be using the woman’s death for attention, Ferguson said, “There’s no politics to this.”
“If this was a political grandstand, there would be an opposite side to this. Is the opposite side, ‘Let’s allow murders on our light rail’? Is the opposite side, ‘Let’s let people out of state prison so they can commit other crimes?’ There’s no other side of this.”
Family members said in their lawyer’s statement that they want the defendant to be brought to justice. But they also said they want to focus the energy of a national spotlight on public transit security, decrying what they allege was a lack of security presence at the time of the attack and demanding an investigation into any lack of protocols that may have hastened the violence.
This could have been anyone riding the light rail that night,” the family said in the statement. “We are committed to making sure this never happens again.”
Ferguson and Barnacle said they spoke to the family, who said they would like her to be buried in America.
“They said, ‘She loved America; we’re going to bury her here,'” Ferguson said. “So I think we can give her an America to be proud of.”
