The alleged killer who stabbed a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a train was revealed as a member of a family riddled with criminal records.
Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, is a career criminal and diagnosed schizophrenic, accused of stabbing Iryna Zarutska on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. His siblings and father also have extensive criminal records.
The crime family’s history of offenses was revealed through court records and law enforcement documents.
Brown Jr’s brother, Stacey, in October of 2012, killed a 65-year-old man and used the Charlotte light rail to escape police.
He pleaded guilty in April 2014 to second-degree murder and two counts of armed robbery, assault with intent to kill, and breaking a motor vehicle.
The brother was sentenced to 27-36 years in prison, according to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office.
During his time in prison, Brown has accumulated 44 infractions, involving offenses like assault with a deadly weapon, arson, theft, and tampering with locks.
He was also served probation for a conviction in 2010 for threats against the government or assault, according to North Carolina’s prison database.
Stacey Brown, in October of 2012, killed a 65-year-old man and used the Charlotte light rail to escape police
Tracey Vontrea Brown, most recently was arrested in 2024 for felony conspiracy, shoplifting, and misdemeanor larceny
Decarlos’s sister, 33-year-old Tracey Vontrea Brown, has a criminal history including larceny, felony conspiracy, vehicle theft, resisting arrest, misdemeanor shoplifting, and a 2024 arrest for felony conspiracy, shoplifting, and misdemeanor larceny.
The family patriarch, Decarlos Brown Sr., has also faced arrests, being charged with breaking and entering, felony conspiracy, larceny, and carrying a weapon on a university campus back in 1990.
Decarlos Jr. has been arrested at least 14 times and was released from jail in January on a ‘written promise to appear,’ following a charge for allegedly misusing the 911 system during a mental health episode.
Months later, in August, on the same train service his brother used to flee from the police years ago, he allegedly stabbed Zarutska.
Since the stabbing incident, video footage showing the woman bleeding out for minutes with no assistance has gone viral. Brown can allegedly be heard in the video stating, ‘I got that white girl.’
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the federal charges Brown would face: ‘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.’
‘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,’ Bondi said.
Iryna Zarutska was 23 years old and a refugee from Ukraine
Decarlos Jr. blamed the materials inside his body, planted inside him by the government, for making him kill the young girl
Since the stabbing, the video footage has gone viral of the woman bleeding out for minutes without any help. In the video, Brown can reportedly be heard saying, ‘I got that white girl’
Decarlos Jr. blamed the materials inside his body, planted inside him by the government, for making him kill the young girl.
His sister Tracey revealed the audio to the Daily Mail of his call from prison: ‘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 added that he wants the police to investigate the materials in his body that caused him to kill her.
