Decarlos Brown Jr., who was caught on video killing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, is already facing first-degree murder charge in state court
The Department of Justice on Tuesday filed a federal charge against Decarlos Brown Jr. in the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte, N.C., light rail train, with Attorney General Pam Bondi vowing to “seek the maximum penalty” and declaring that Brown “will never again see the light of day as a free man.”
Federal prosecutors charged Brown with “one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system,” according to the DOJ’s press release. Bondi described Zarutska as “a young woman living the American dream” and said that “her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.”
“I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute DeCarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder,” Bondi went on. “We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence—he will never again see the light of day as a free man.”
North Carolina authorities already charged Brown with first-degree murder on August 22 for allegedly killing Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light rail train that day.
Surveillance footage released to the public shows the moments before what police called the “seemingly unprovoked” attack. Brown took out a knife and stabbed Zarutska, still dressed in her work uniform, three times, according to court documents reviewed by Fox News. Zarutska fled Ukraine with her family in 2022 to escape the war and was working at a local pizzeria.
Brown has a long history of violent crime, with 14 arrests along with convictions dating back more than a decade, Fox News reported. He was convicted of larceny and breaking and entering in 2013 and of robbery with a dangerous weapon in 2015, serving more than six years in prison before his release in 2020. He remained on parole until 2021 but was no longer under state supervision by the time of Zarutska’s killing.
The FBI’s special agent in charge in Charlotte, James Barnacle Jr., said Tuesday that he hopes the federal charge will “help bring her family a measure of justice,” according to Fox.
“Iryna Zarutska had likely taken that train ride many times before,” Barnacle said. “She was probably tired after a day at work and just wanted to go home, but tragically she never made it.”
