Ukrainian Refugee Stabbed in Random Charlotte Train Attack
A heartbreaking story has been unfolding in Charlotte, North Carolina, where 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed while riding the city’s light rail. Police said the attack was completely unprovoked, and it has left both the local community and Iryna’s loved ones searching for answers.
The man accused of carrying out this act is 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. According to investigators, he allegedly stabbed Iryna three times on August 22 while passengers looked on in shock. Authorities quickly arrested him, and federal charges have now been brought forward, including an act of violence resulting in death on a mass transportation system. That charge alone could make him eligible for the death penalty. State prosecutors have also charged him with first-degree murder.
Also Read:What makes the case even more disturbing is the history behind the suspect. Brown’s mother and sister have spoken publicly, describing years of mental illness that followed his release from prison in 2020. They said he believed there was some kind of “material” or even a “chip” implanted in his body, which he claimed was controlling his actions. In phone recordings released after his arrest, Brown himself can be heard insisting that it wasn’t truly him who committed the crime, but rather this so-called material. He even admitted he didn’t know Iryna and had never spoken to her, questioning out loud why anyone would attack a stranger for no reason.
Brown’s family revealed that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but often refused to take his prescribed medication. His mother recalled troubling behavior — yelling, slamming doors, talking to himself, and showing increasing aggression. She tried to get him admitted to a hospital, but said the facility refused because he wasn’t threatening to harm himself at the time. At one point, she and her husband had no choice but to drop him off at a men’s shelter, as they no longer felt safe.
Despite his history, Brown remained in the community and had multiple run-ins with the law, including 14 prior charges and a prison sentence for armed robbery. Even earlier this year, he was arrested for misusing 911, during which he again claimed to be under government control.
As for Iryna, her story makes this tragedy even harder to process. She had fled war-torn Ukraine in 2022, seeking safety and a chance to build a future in the United States. Friends and family remember her as a talented artist, an animal lover, and a young woman full of determination and hope. On the day of the attack, she was still wearing her work uniform, simply on her way home.
Federal prosecutors have described the stabbing as a brutal attack on an innocent woman, promising to fight for justice in her name. For Iryna’s loved ones, however, no legal outcome can undo the loss of a life cut so short — a life that had already survived the hardships of war, only to end in senseless violence on a quiet train ride in Charlotte.
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