The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI have announced that the man accused of killing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska last month on a North Carolina commuter train has been charged with a federal crime.
At a Tuesday press conference, Russ Ferguson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said that Decarlos Brown Jr. has been charged with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.
"Decarlos Brown Jr., who we allege stabbed Iryna Zarutska, is in state custody on first-degree murder charges, but I'm here today to announce that we are going to supplement those state charges with federal charges," Ferguson said. "These federal charges will go alongside the murder case in state court, and we hope that they will ensure justice for Iryna, for her family and for the whole Charlotte community."
Zarutska, 23, came to the United States in 2022 to escape the war in Ukraine and was on her way home from work when she was attacked on Aug. 22, allegedly by Brown, while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Brown, 34, who is reportedly homeless, had been arrested and released 14 previous times. His criminal history goes back to 2014 and includes an eight-year prison term for armed robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Ferguson said that Zarutska's fatal stabbing is "obviously a horrible, horrible situation," but asserted that "this is why federal statutes exist."
"They exist to take care of situations like this because no one should sit in fear when they sit on the light rail," he said. "If you sit in fear on the light rail, you sit in fear when you walk around the streets of our center city, like I do every day. You sit in fear when you go to our parks, like I do with my daughter every weekend. You sit in fear at our sporting events, our entertainment venues, at concerts, at restaurants, at our museums.
"These are all the things that we have worked, as a city, so hard to build," Ferguson continued. "Companies have come here in droves, more than 150 people move here every day. We've built a city that people want to live in, but we can lose that all if we allow violent crime, like this, to go on in our streets. And I'm here to tell you the federal government is going to save our city from that."
The maximum penalty for the federal charge is life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Jim Barnacle, FBI special agent in charge, said that "the system has failed us in this case, there is no doubt."
"Everyone deserves to go about their daily lives — to get to work, to get to school, just across town — without the fear of being attacked," Barnacle said. "We should live in a country, and in a city, where accountability, if you're convicted for a violent crime, is always paramount."
The FBI "will work tirelessly to hold violent offenders accountable," he said, adding that "Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, has empowered every field office to shift resources to violent crime to help keep our cities' streets safe."
"We will continue to work with U.S. Attorney Ferguson, the Department of Justice, under the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Patel to pursue justice for Iryna, her family and for the people of Charlotte."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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