Video of the moments leading up to the brutal killing of a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee was released Friday. (Warning: The video is graphic.)
Iryna Zarutska, 23, was stabbed and killed around 10 p.m. Aug. 22 while riding on Charlotte, North Carolina, public transportation.
A chilling video released by Charlotte Area Transit System shows Zarutska walking onto the train and sitting down. A few minutes later, the man sitting behind her — identified by authorities as 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. — gets out a knife and raises his arm toward her. In an affidavit, a detective who worked on the case wrote Brown struck her three times and “blood visibly drips on the floor” as he walks away from her.
Zarutska was pronounced dead at the scene, and Brown was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A judge ordered him to be monitored for 60 days, according to CNN; he will be arrested when he’s released and charged with first-degree murder.
The Charlotte Area Transit System did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zarutska was an immigrant from Ukraine, coming to the United States in 2022 to escape the country’s war with Russia. She was an artist who had dreams of becoming a veterinary assistant.
In the past, Brown has been convicted of armed robbery, felony larceny and breaking and entering, according to CNN. He spent more than five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Brown’s mother told Charlotte TV station WSOC last month that what Brown did was “atrocious” and shared more about his background to highlight how the system had failed.
She told WSOC that after he was released from his five-year prison stay around 2019, “he started saying weird things.” Brown became violent at home and was evaluated and diagnosed with schizophrenia, she told the station. After he was released from psychiatric monitoring, Brown’s mother said he became “aggressive,” leading her to kick him out. He became homeless.
Brown was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of misusing 911. When police arrived at the hospital to conduct a welfare check on him, Brown told police that someone gave him “man-made material” that was controlling when he ate, walked and talked, according to The Associated Press. He was released from jail, and in court, his public defender questioned Brown’s mental capacity. Brown’s mother told WSOC that he should never have been released from custody with his criminal record and mental health issues.
On Monday, Donald Trump called him a “mentally deranged lunatic” as the president blamed Democrats for not putting “bad people in jail” and endorsed former chair of the Republican National Committee Michael Whatley for U.S. Senate in North Carolina.
“Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and ‘Wannabe Senator’ Roy Cooper. North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it!”
Last month, Trump deployed National Guard members to Washington, D.C., after he claimed there was a “crime emergency” in the city; in fact, crime has been falling in the district in recent years. Since then, Trump has teased that New Orleans and Chicago are next.
