Iryna Zarutska (Ірина Заруцька), a native of Kyiv, Ukraine, has died. She was 23.
Iryna Zarutska
In 2022, Zarutska left Ukraine amid the ongoing war between the country and Russia. She and her family moved to the United States.
On August 22, 2025, Zarutska was at a light rail station in South End, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. She boarded the Lynx Blue Line train and sat in front of Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, a homeless repeat felon.
After 4 minutes, Brown pulled a pocket knife from his hoodie and stabbed Zarutska three times. After 2 minutes, he exited the train and was arrested by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers on the platform.
Passengers tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Zarutska before she was pronounced dead at the scene. On August 31, 2025, a candlelight vigil was held in Charlotte to honor her and other recent victims of transit-related violence.
Decarlos Brown Jr.
Brown is a career criminal. He had 13 prior convictions before he stabbed Zarutska.
According to Brown’s younger sister Tracey Brown, he is a paranoid schizophrenic who believed the government had implanted a chip in him. After a 5-year sentence for armed robbery, he was freed from prison after a 5-year sentence for armed robbery in 2022, the same year he assaulted her.
On January 19, 2025, Decarlos called 911 during a welfare check and told police officers that a microchip was controlling his brain. When he asked the officers to investigate what he called a manmade material inside his body, they told him the issue was a medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do.
After flying into a rage, Decarlos was arrested and charged with misuse of the 911 system. On January 21, 2025, he was granted cashless bail by Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes on a written promise that he would show up to a future court date.
She told the New York Post that she automatically knew he “had come to some breaking point” when she saw the video of him stabbing Zarutska.
On August 28, 2025, Tracey called Decarlos while he was in jail. He told her “the material in his body” had forced him to kill Zarutska.
On September 9, 2025, a federal criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte charging Decarlos with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison or death if convicted.
CONAN Daily 