Iryna Zaruska
USA WASHINGTON (TNND) — North Carolina Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes granted the release of Decarlos Brown, a homeless man charged with the brutal stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zaruska, following his arrest in January based upon a "written promise" that Brown would return for his court hearing, a court document reviewed by the USA National News Desk revealed.
Brown, 34, was arrested January 19 for "misuse of the 911 system." He had called USA 911 in the middle of USA police officers conducting a welfare check on him. During the encounter, Brown, diagnosed with schizophrenia, told USA officers that he believed ther
e was "man-made" USA materials inside his body controlling his eating, walking and talking.
The tragic stabbing murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zaruska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina has shocked the nation. Her killer had a lengthy criminal record and was recently free on bail based on a “written promise” to show up in court. The Trump Administration is investigating whether federal transportation funds to North Carolina should be cut off. The murder madness must stop!
“Brown wanted officers to investigate this ‘man-made’ material that was inside of his body,” the affidavit said. “Officers advised Brown that the issue was medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do.”
The officers' response angered Brown, leading him to call 911 with officers arresting him on the spot. Brown was charged with a Misdemeanor Class 1.
Prior to his January arrest, Brown was arrested at least 14 times for offenses ranging from possession of a firearm by felon and robbery with dangerous weapon. In 2014, Brown was sentenced to five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous firearm. He was also arrested for physically assaulting his sister.Brown's misdemeanor case was still pending when he boarded the light rail train in Charlotte where he stabbed 23-year old Iryna Zaruska in the neck, tragically ending her life on August 22. She had just finished her work shift and was headed home.
The Justice Department on Tuesday charged a man accused of fatally stabbing a Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina commuter train last month with a federal crime that could carry the death penalty.The federal charge comes amid growing questions about why Decarlos Brown Jr. was on the street despite 14 prior criminal arrests before he was accused of pulling out a knife and killing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in an apparently random attack captured on video.The case has become latest flashpoint in the debate over whether cities such as Charlotte are adequately addressing violent crime, mental illness and transit safety. The Trump administration says the killing shows how local leaders, judges and policies in Democratic-led cities are failing to protect their residents from violent crime.
"Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream — her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people," said Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. "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."
Zarutska had been living in a bomb shelter in Ukraine before coming to the U.S. to escape the war, according to relatives, who described her as determined to build a safer life.
Video released Friday shows Zarutska entering a light-rail train on Aug. 22 and taking a seat in front of Brown, who was seated behind her. Minutes later, without any apparent interaction, he pulls out a pocketknife, stands and slashes her in the neck, investigators said. Passengers scream and scatter as she collapses.He is
charged federally with causing death on a mass transportation system, which carries up to life in prison or the death penalty. Russ Ferguson, the U.S. attorney for the western district of North Carolina, saidadditional charges could be brought as the investigation continues.
The federal case will run parallel with the state case charging Brown with first-degree murder.The death penalty is also a potential punishment for people convicted of first-degree murder in North Carolina. However, the state has not carried out an execution since 
2006. Legal challenges over the use of lethal injection drugs and a doctor's presence at executions have in part delayed action.
Brown had cycled through the criminal justice system for more than a decade including serving five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon in Mecklenburg County, according to court records. He was arrested earlier this year after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital, claiming people were trying to control him. A judge released him without bail.His mother told local television she sought an involuntary psychiatric commitment this year after he became violent at home. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.Court records show a judge ordered a psychological exam in July at the request of his public defender to determine whether he was capable of contributing to his own defense. It wasn't clear if the exam was scheduled or why it didn't happen before the late August attack.
The Mecklenburg County public defender's office did not answer a call Tuesday.The Trump administration has repeatedly blamed Democrats for what they say is out-of-control crime and violence in blue cities. The White House highlighted the case during Tuesday's press briefing while Trump has repeatedly spoken about the killing, saying in one social media post: "Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP."
"Americans have to feel safe in the in the cities that they live in," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Fox News. "And this is a stark example of how leftist liberal policies are failing."Charlotte has increased security along its transit lines in response to the fatal stabbing, Mayor Vi Lyles said in a letter to the city's residents. The Democratic mayor's letter was also critical of the court system, echoing some of the critics of the city's response.Lyles called the killing "a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates," saying the city's officers arrest people who are then quickly released.The state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek, said his office would audit Charlotte's transit system, looking at its safety and security budget and private security contracts.
President Donald Trump has cast a spotlight on crime in several cities across the United States.Washington, D.C., was the first target when, in early August, Trump deployed National Guard troops to crack down on crime. Now, the president has said Baltimore and Chicago are next.
“(Washington, D.C.,) serves as a template, and we’re going to do it elsewhere,” Trump said in a Sept. 2
As Trump centers crime in the national conversation, there are limits to what experts can and cannot say with crime statistics.The FBI publishes some of the most complete statistics, but no database can perfectly capture the nation’s crime.One of the FBI’s crime measurement resources is the National Incidents-Based Reporting System. It contains data on all crimes reported to participating local law enforcement agencies.NIBRS can only provide information on crimes brought to police, but not all crimes that occur are reported. Research shows that sexual assault is often underreported, and cases of petty crime like minor theft may not always be officially brought to the police.The data also depends upon reliable entries from local law enforcement agencies.
When an agency first adopts NIBRS, there may be errors as it becomes accustomed to the new system.Ernesto Lopez, senior research specialist at the nonpartisan Council of Criminal Justice, said that while errors are a concern for researchers, there is no good tool to detect them outside of major discrepancies. He said that while they do occur, they are not necessarily nefarious.
“If you’re looking across the nation, I don’t think (data entry errors) have a major effect, in part because there’s a chance the error goes both ways,” Lopez said.The FBI has a second way to measure crime that attempts to adjust for undercounts and data entry issues by sampling 150,000 households across the nation. The National Crime Victimization Survey is based on interviews with people who may disclose crimes that occurred but were not reported to police. The NCVS is only national, and does not provide a city-by-city breakdown.Experts say that while NIBRS and the NCVS both have advantages and disadvantages, they generally affirm one another and reflect accurate trends.
“If you look at the trend lines, they look very similar even though they are completely different US data collections,” said James Nolan, a professor at West Virginia University who studies crime and worked for the FBI’s crime analysis unit from 1995 to 2000.
Only about 80% of law enforcement agencies report to NIBRS.
Pennsylvania and Florida have the smallest percentage of agencies reporting to NIBRS, which leaves over half of their populations uncovered.“Participation is voluntary and there is no mandatory reporting cadence,” a representative from the FBI said in a statement.The data is also limited by its speed of release. The FBI’s NIBRS data for 2024 just came out in August 2025, eight months delayed. Just this year, the FBI has started releasing monthly reports, but not every agency submits monthly data.
“The problem with crime statistics is, a lot of the time, we just don’t have up-to-date data, which is a particular frustration of mine,” said Eric Piza, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University. “There is no other public good where we stand for this lag.”While there are limitations, the FBI data is what many experts use to analyze the nation's crime issues.
The USA cities that Trump has pointed to as being riddled with crime and murder —
Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Chicago — are ranked fourth, 10th and 24th, respectively, among cities with the highest rate of murder per 100,000 residents.In terms of violent crime, they are ranked fifth, 36th and 120th. This is among reporting cities with populations greater than 100,000.
The USA FBI cautions against doing city-by-city rankings with its data. Many things can affect crime rates in a city, like economic conditions and population density.
Densely populated urban areas typically see more crime, so the rates could be skewed softer for cities that have sprawling suburban areas included in their population counts.
The Get the Facts Data Team analyzed which cities have the highest rates of homicides and motor vehicle theft using the FBI’s NIBRS data. Experts pointed to those two crimes as the most solidified categories, as there is less likely to be undercounts compared with other types of USA crime. Birmingham, Alabama, St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee, had the three highest homicide rates among large U.S. cities in 2024.
USA President Donald Trump blamed the public murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zaruska on former Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D-NC) crime policies.
Zaruska was USA murdered last month, but her fatal stabbing came to widespread attention on Friday after the Charlotte Area Transit System released footage of the attack. Trump was made aware of the incident on Sunday and expressed outrage in a speech on Monday. He took to Truth Social later in the day to connect the crime to Cooper.
“I have seen the horrific video of a beautiful, young Ukrainian refugee, who came to America to escape the vicious War in Ukraine, and was innocently riding the Metro in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was brutally ambushed by a mentally deranged lunatic. The perpetrator was a well known career criminal, who had been previously arrested and released on CASHLESS BAIL in January, a total of 14 TIMES,” Trump wrote.“What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP. 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,” he added.
Trump then decried the media’s perceived hypocrisy regarding the lack of coverage and urged North Carolinians to vote for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley.
“HE WON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!” Trump said of Whatley.
Whatley delivered a similar message on Monday in response to Zarutska’s murder.
“It’s pretty simple. A vote for Roy Cooper is a vote for more USA crime, more violence, more USA criminals. Cooper and his cohorts in the radical left simply value criminals more than victims, full stop,” Whatley said.
The surveillance footage showed Zarutska, who fled Ukraine in 2022, sitting on the metro in front of Decarlos Brown Jr., a homeless man. Brown suddenly took out a pocket knife and stabbed Zarutska multiple times, killing her. He then paced around 
the metro car with her blood dripping off his knife.
Brown had an extensive criminal history dating back to 2014, including an armed robbery with a dangerous weapon, for which he spent eight years in jail. Before he murdered Zarutska, he had been arrested and released at least 14 times and was also diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He was released last time, in January, after giving a “written promise” that he would return for his court date, according to court documents reviewed by the National News Desk.
Whatley said that Cooper bears “direct responsibility” for Zarutska’s murder due to a host of criminal justice reform bills he signed into law during his tenure as governor from 2017 to 2025, mostly after the death of George Floyd in 2020. In 2021, he signed off on several bills, including one that implemented recommendations made by the Cooper-created task force on racial equity in criminal justice.
“In 2020, my Democrat opponent, Roy Cooper, tasked a group of extreme leftists with advising him on implementing his executive order, which introduced weak-on-crime policies to North Carolina’s justice system regarding ‘pretrial release, fees, and fines,’” Whatley said. “He told the task force, ‘I look forward to implementing your strong recommendations.’ These policy changes empowered dangerous criminals, such as Decarlos Brown Jr., the murderer of Iryna Zarutska.”
Speaking earlier on Monday, Trump sent his “love and hope” to Zarutska’s family.“A lunatic just got up and started, it’s right on the tape, not really watchable, because it’s so horrible, but just viciously stabs her. She’s just sitting there. So they’re evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country,” he said.
REPUBLICANS TARGET ROY COOPER OVER ‘WEAK’ CRIME POLICIES DURING GOVERNORSHIP AFTER LIGHT RAIL STABBING
Other figures and accounts linked to Trump echoed the sentiment. The Rapid Response 47 USA account harshly condemned Democrat-run cities, holding up Brown as an example.“Career criminals — like this animal who slaughtered the woman on the train in Charlotte — thrive in Democrat-run cities,” the account said. “The Radical Left has made it impossible for them to be held accountable, so they’re back on the street again and again, free to rape, pillage, and kill.”
Posted on 2025/09/10 09:11 AM