The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. – Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office
OAN Staff Blake Wolf 11:58 AM – Monday, September 8, 2025
President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the family of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was brutally stabbed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month.
The footage of the attack garnered outrage among social media users after it began to emerge last week, showcasing 23-year-old Zarutska being stabbed to death unprovoked, allegedly carried out by 35-year-old Decarlos Brown, who was sitting behind her on the train.
“There are evil people, and we have to confront that. I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed,” Trump stated on Monday.
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“A lunatic just got up and started — it’s right on the tape, not really watchable, because it’s so horrible — but just viciously stabbed. 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 continued.
“We’re going to get to the end of it. And you know, when you have horrible killings, you have to take horrible actions,” Trump added, suggesting a nationwide end to cashless bail for violent criminals. “Cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon, in many cases, going out and going again, cashless bail.”
BREAKING 🚨 President Trump on Iryna Zarutska: “I give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed in Charlotte by a madman — a lunatic — while she’s just sitting there. There are evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we… pic.twitter.com/n19ygwvsLV
The fatal stabbing occurred on August 22nd, around 10 p.m., on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, according to an affidavit reviewed by ABC News.
Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who recently moved to the United States to escape the ongoing war in Ukraine, boarded the train and unknowingly sat one aisle in front of the suspect.
The train traveled for “approximately four and a half minutes before the suspect pulls a knife out of his pocket, unfolds the knife, pauses, then stands up, and strikes at the victim three times,” according to the affidavit.
The released footage skips the graphic slaughter, showing the suspect wandering around the train after the attack, still holding the bloody knife as another passenger attempts to flee.
23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed in an unprovoked attack by 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. on Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line train
Iryna Zarutska’s blood is on the hands of the state that freed her murderer 14 TIMES instead of keeping him INCARCERATED pic.twitter.com/15R4kCd61Y
Zarutska was pronounced dead at the scene, and Brown was quickly arrested after being released from the hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries sustained at the time of the incident.”
The suspect has a long criminal history, as his arrest records date back to 2007 when he was still a minor.
Brown has since been charged with first-degree murder, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles (D-N.C.) offered prayers for Zarutska’s family members “as they continue to grieve through an unimaginable time.”
“Like so many of you, I’m heartbroken — and I’ve been thinking hard about what safety really looks like in our city. I remain committed to doing all we can do to protect our residents and ensure Charlotte is a place where everyone feels safe,” Lyles added on Saturday.
The young woman was described as a “gifted and passionate artist,” remembered by her “kindness, her creativity and the lasting impression she left on everyone she met,” her obituary read.
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