A man who authorities say stabbed a Ukrainian refugee to death on a commuter train in North Carolina last month has now been charged with a federal crime and could face the death penalty, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, is accused of pulling a knife and attacking 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail system in an apparent random attack just before 10 p.m. on Aug. 22.
Brown is charged with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
Video of the attack was released Friday by the Charlotte Area Transit System. It shows the victim entering the light rail car and sitting down in the row in front of Brown.
About four minutes later, Brown pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed the victim three times from behind, investigators said. He was arrested by Charlotte police immediately after stepping off the train and charged with first-degree murder.
Zarutska had recently arrived in the U.S. from Ukraine “seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning,” according to a GoFundMe page set up on behalf of her family.
The Kyiv native, who relocated to the U.S. with her mother, sister, and brother to escape the war three years ago, “will be remembered for her kindness, her creativity, and the lasting impression she left on everyone she met,” according to an online obituary.
She was “a young woman living the American dream,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Tuesday, blaming her “horrific murder” on “soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.”
Brown has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to his mother, who said she’d sought an involuntary psychiatric commitment this year after he became violent at home.
He previously faced multiple charges and served five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon, court records show. Earlier this year, he was arrested after calling 911 from a hospital, saying that people were attempting to control him. He was released without bail.
With News Wire Services
