Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, faced sharp criticism for failing to keep a man with a history of mental illness, arrests and erratic behavior off the streets before he fatally stabbed a young Ukrainian refugee on a commuter train last month, a killing that critics say could have been prevented.
Police say 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who fled the war in Ukraine only to be killed in an apparently random attack on Aug. 22, was stabbed by a man with a long record of criminal charges and psychiatric crises. The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., had served time in prison, been briefly committed for schizophrenia and was arrested earlier this year after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital.
The attack, captured in a newly released video, has drawn condemnation of local officials and emerged as a flashpoint in the debate over whether cities like Charlotte are adequately addressing violent crime, mental illness and transit safety.
Zarutska had come to the United States to escape Russia’s invasion, relatives wrote in a GoFundMe post, describing her as determined to build a safer life.
Video released Friday shows Zarutska sitting on the light-rail train as Brown takes a seat directly behind her. Minutes later, without any apparent interaction, he pulls out a pocketknife, stands and slashes her in the neck, investigators said. Passengers screamed and scattered as she collapsed.
Brown was arrested at the scene and charged with first-degree murder. Court records show he had cycled through the criminal justice system for more than a decade, with 14 prior cases in Mecklenburg County, including serving five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon. His mother told local television she sought an involuntary psychiatric commitment earlier this year after he became violent at home. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
In January, he was arrested again after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital, claiming people were trying to control him. A judge released him without bail.
President Donald Trump on Monday sent his love to the victim’s family and called the suspect “a madman” while speaking at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. “They are evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country,” Trump said.
He later questioned on Truth Social why Brown was freed and riding the train. “Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP,” Trump wrote.
Several Republicans and Trump allies say the attack shows that large cities and governors are failing to protect their residents and justifies the president’s federal takeover of Washington and his plans to replicate that effort in other places.
Brown, who spent five years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery with a dangerous weapon, was arrested earlier this year when officers were called to a Charlotte hospital for a welfare check.
He told officers that he believed someone gave him man-made material that controlled when he ate, walked and talked, according to police records. Brown became upset after officers told him there was nothing further they could do.
Court records also show that Brown faced charges ranging from making threats and shoplifting to felony larceny dating back to 2011, although some of those charges appear to have been dismissed.
A message seeking comment was left Monday with the attorney representing him on the murder charge.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed Charlotte officials, including the city’s Democratic mayor, for allowing Brown to be on the streets.
“This monster had a track record longer than a CVS receipt, including prison time for robbery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering, and larceny,” Duffy wrote on X Sunday. “By failing to properly punish him, Charlotte failed Iryna Zarutska and North Carolinians.”
Top Republican lawmakers in North Carolina’s state legislature echoed the criticism. “This is the cost of soft-on-crime ‘leadership,’” Republican House Speaker Destin Hall wrote on social media. “Anyone who puts criminals before victims has no business in public office.”
Random attacks and violence in U.S. cities have taken on increasing significance nationally this year, colliding with the politics of crime and immigration as the Trump administration plans to ramp up a greater federal role on city streets.
Trump has threatened to deploy the National Guard to several Democratic-led cities including Chicago, Baltimore and San Francisco to fight what he says is runaway crime. But data shows most violent crime in those places and around the country has declined in recent years.
Those same trends have largely held true in Charlotte, where the rates of homicides, robberies, aggravated assault and burglary all decreased between 2020 and 2024 but auto thefts rose significantly, according to AH Datalytics, which tracks crime using local law enforcement data for its Real-Time Crime Index.
In 2024, though, homicides in Charlotte did spike by nearly 20% over the previous year, but that number has dropped again during the first six months of this year, according to the data.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles called Zarutska’s killing “a senseless and tragic loss.”
“Like so many of you, I’m heartbroken — and I’ve been thinking hard about what safety really looks like in our city,” she posted on X after authorities released footage of the attack. ___
Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland. Associated Press reporters John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; contributed.
