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 schizophrenic accused of stabbing Iryna Zarutska on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
His siblings and father have lengthy criminal records, revealed through court and law enforcement documents.
Brown Jr’s brother, Stacey, killed a 65-year-old man and used the Charlotte light rail to escape police in October 2012.
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.
While in jail, he has received 44 infractions, including crimes such as assaulting someone with a deadly weapon, setting a fire, theft of property and lock tampering.
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 killed a 65-year-old man and used the Charlotte light rail to escape police in 2012
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 record that includes larceny, felony conspiracy, vehicle theft, resisting public officers, misdemeanor shoplifting, and, most recently, an arrest in 2024 for felony conspiracy, shoplifting, and misdemeanor larceny.
The father of the family, Decarlos Brown Sr., has been arrested as well, reportedly breaking and entering, felony conspiracy, larceny, and possession of a weapon on a university campus in 1990.
Decarlos Jr. has at least 14 prior arrests and was freed from jail in January on a ‘written promise to appear.’ he was charged with misusing the 911 system while he allegedly had a mental 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, the video footage has gone viral of the woman bleeding out for minutes without any help. In the video, Decarlos Jr. can reportedly be heard saying, ‘I got that white girl.’
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the federal charges he 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. is said to have 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, Decarlos Jr. can reportedly be heard saying, ‘I got that white girl’
Decarlos Jr. is said to have 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.