Credit: Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office & Charlotte Area Transit System
Man Accused Of Killing Ukrainian Refugee Reveals ‘Chilling Reason’ Why He Did it
The homeless man charged with stabbing a Ukrainian refugee to death has revealed his chilling ‘motive.’
Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a train in August, 2025.
Surveillance footage captured Zarutska being brutally attacked on a North Carolina US train.
The 23-year-old had recently arrived in the States after fleeing her war-torn country, in hopes of a ‘new beginning.’
The horrific crime
The Ukrainian woman boarded the Lynx Blue Line train just after 9:45 p.m. on August 22, and sat in the seat in front of Brown Jr.
The 34-year-old man can allegedly be seen in the surveillance footage behind her wearing a red hoodie.
A police detective told CNN: “The train travels for approximately four-and-[a]-half minutes before the suspect pulls a knife from his pocket, unfolds the knife, pauses, then stands up, and strikes at the victim three times.”
The harrowing footage shows the refugee look up in horror at the alleged suspect, Brown Jr., before he walks down through the train past other passengers.
Zarutska’s head then slumps down before her body collapses to the floor of the train.
The role of social media
Clips circulating on social media suggest that the killer muttered, ‘I got that white girl,’ as he walked away.
Initially, others on the train did not run to help the woman until realizing the seriousness of her injury, with people online pointing out a trail of blood left by Brown Jr.
Zarutska was confirmed dead at the scene, 15 seconds after the attack.
Brown Jr. has a wide-spreading criminal history, including robbery convictions dating back to 2011.
He’d previously spent six years in a North Carolina prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Decarlos Brown Jr.
The 34-year-old, who is a diagnosed schizophrenic, had been arrested in 2022 for assaulting a woman.
Brown Jr. has been subsequently charged with first-degree murder.
The mother of accused Brown Jr., Michelle Dewitt, spoke with the New York Post about her son, stating he should have ‘never been free’ due to his deteriorating mental health.
Dewitt said she’d taken her son to a homeless shelter just days before the attack and that he had grown increasingly aggressive with both her and her husband.
Now, the accused murderer has spoken out from prison, as his sister Tracey Brown, 33, released an audio recording of their phone call.
In the call shared with the Daily Mail, Brown Jr. can be heard telling his sister he believed the government had implanted foreign ‘materials’ into his brain.
He also insists they’d been controlling his actions when he pulled the knife on Zarutska.
The 34-year-old said to his sister: “I hurt my hand, stabbing her. I don’t even know the lady.
“I never said not one word to the lady at all. That’s scary, ain’t it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?”
He also demands that police ‘investigate’ the ‘materials’ which were ‘controlling’ him.
Brown Jr. also refers to the attacker in the third person.
His sister also revealed that they’d push to get Brown Jr. admitted to the hospital several times over the past few years as his mental health declined.
But medical professionals kept putting him back on the streets after just 24 hours in the facilities.
Tracey stated: “I strongly feel like he should not have been on the streets at all.
“I’m going to be honest. I’m not blaming anyone for his actions, except for the state. I’m blaming the state for letting him down as far as seeking help.
“When you have mentally ill people seeking help, and you’re running tests on them, and you clearly see that you are dealing with a psychosis on an acute level, you do not let them go back into society.
“He was a high risk. He was not in his right mind. He was not safe for society.”
The ongoing case
President Donald Trump has since called for him to face the death penalty.
However, a court filing on April 7 revealed that Brown has been found ‘incapable to proceed’ following a psychiatric evaluation.
Under state law, defendants must understand the legal process and be able to assist in their defense to stand trial. As a result, his case has been delayed while the court assesses whether his competency can be restored.
Brown remains in custody and is also facing federal charges, though a judge must still decide whether to accept the findings. If he is ultimately ruled unfit for trial, charges could be dismissed but potentially refiled in the future.
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