Charlotte light rail stabbing leads to federal charges, AG Pam Bondi announces
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Charlotte light rail train stabbing
A 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, was fatally stabbed on Aug. 22 on the light rail line in Charlotte’s South End. 34-year-old DeCarlos Brown Jr., who has a reported history of mental health issues, is charged in the killing. Zarutska’s death has received national attention, with public comments from President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Charlotte officials.
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The man accused of killing a Ukrainian woman on Charlotte’s light rail now faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of a new federal charge, the U.S. government announced Tuesday.
Decarlos Brown Jr., a homeless 34-year old, now faces the federal charge on top of a Mecklenburg County murder charge following the slashing and killing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska. In an emotional news conference Tuesday, Russ Ferguson, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, called the stabbing “a terroristic act” and criticized security on the city’s transit system.
Zarutska was a refugee who left Ukraine’s bomb shelters to move to Charlotte, Ferguson said at the news conference in Charlotte. He had just gotten off the phone with her mother and uncle.
Zarutska left work on a Friday evening and “sat down in a row that just happened to be in front of Brown,” Ferguson said. Four minutes later, video shows Brown “pulled out a pocket knife ... stabbed her three times in the neck and walked off the train with blood dripping from the knife.”
Zarutska died on the city’s light rail train as it traveled through busy South End on Aug. 22. Ferguson said video of her killing helped his office build a case for a federal charge.
Brown is now charged with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, Ferguson announced in a Department of Justice news release with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
“It’s a terroristic act making people scared to go about their daily lives,” and that is what Brown has done, he said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Rodriguez, who President Donald Trump nominated to fill a judicial vacancy in the district, signed the criminal complaint against Rodriguez on Tuesday.
U.S. government criticizes CATS security
Ferguson called the light rail line where Zarutska was stabbed a “mobile homeless shelter.”
“It’s an air conditioned place. There’s no one checking tickets. No one’s using tickets, and quite frankly, the revenue from the tickets that could be collected could pay for more security on the train,” he said. “So I do think there’s more we could be doing on our train and more we should be doing, but that’s not our job, our job is to prosecute this case.”
The security contractor for Charlotte Area Transit System is a company called Professional Security Services. The N.C. State Auditor’s Office announced Tuesday that it is investigating CATS’ security contracts and spending, among other things.
At the time of the stabbing, Brown had been released from jail on a written promise to appear after police arrested him for misusing 911. That charge was still pending when Brown boarded the train, and a judge had ordered Brown’s mental capacity be evaluated less than a month before.
“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,” 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.”
News of the stabbing gained national attention this weekend when the CATS released video of the stabbing and several media outlets shared some of the footage.
In response to a question about online speculation that Brown may have made a racial remark following the stabbing, Charlotte FBI Special Agent in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said at the news conference that agents were still investigating. Ferguson said investigators may bring other charges against Brown, including potential hate crime charges.
Zarutska’s death prompted an uproar from Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Tim Moore (R-NC), President Donald Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel and Bondi.
Patel, in the same news release, said the stabbing was “a disgraceful act that should never happen in America.”
“The FBI jumped to assist in this investigation immediately to ensure justice is served and the perpetrator is never released from jail to kill again,” Patel said.
The charges are “the first step toward delivering justice for Iryna and her family — as well as the millions of Americans who deserve to live in our great American cities free from being targeted by violent criminals,” he said.
Decarlos Brown’s court records
Brown’s criminal history dates back to at least 2011, with multiple dismissed charges or arrests that seemingly never led to charges. Before being charged with murder, his highest level conviction was a 2014 robbery with an armed weapon committed while on parole for felony breaking and entering and larceny.
In a south Charlotte apartment complex, he flashed a handgun at a man and demanded his phone and money. Police arrested him that same day, and he served more than five years in prison. After his 2020 release, he served a year on parole and then was arrested for assault on a female in August 2022, according to jail records. The charge has no corresponding Mecklenburg County court files in the online case database.
In 2024, he was twice arrested for misusing 911, but again no case files correspond with those arrests.
In January, he was arrested for the same offense for telling 911 dispatchers a “man-made material” was controlling him, according to court records. He was released on a written promise to appear with no bond. At the time a magistrate released Brown with few conditions he was a three-time convicted felon.
In July, a month before the light rail stabbing, Chief District Judge Roy Wiggins ordered Brown’s mental capacity be evaluated before his 911 abuse case moved forward. If Wiggins’ order was followed, Brown would have been evaluated at least two weeks prior to Zarutska’s death.
Moore on Tuesday demanded Wiggins, who oversees Mecklenburg magistrates, remove the magistrate for failing her duties. Through a spokesperson, Wiggins declined to comment.
Observer reporter Ryan Oehrli contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 9, 2025 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Charlotte light rail stabbing leads to federal charges, AG Pam Bondi announces."
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