CHARLOTTE — Decarlos Brown, 34, the man accused of randomly killing a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Friday night in a light rail car in Charlotte’s South End has been booked into the Mecklenburg County Jail, Channel 9 learned Thursday.
He was booked Thursday afternoon on a first-degree murder charge after he got out of the hospital.
Brown is accused of killing Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian woman who had been in the U.S. since August 2022 to escape the war with Russia.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police were called to the East/West Boulevard Station on Camden Road at shortly before 10 p.m. on Friday. They found Zarutska in the back of one of the Lynx Blue Line cars. She had been stabbed in the throat, according to a court affidavit.
She was pronounced deceased at 10:05 p.m.
Witnesses described the suspect, who matched Brown’s description.
Officers found Brown, who is from Charlotte and is unhoused, still on the train platform. He was arrested. Police also discovered a folding knife on the platform.
After the crime, detectives reviewed video from inside the train.
Investigators learned from the video that Zarutska sat in the seats directly in front of Brown. The train had traveled for about four minutes after Zarutska boarded, when Brown “pulls a knife from his pocket, unfolds the knife, pauses, then stands up, and strikes the victim three times,” according to an affidavit.
Brown then walks away and Zarutska goes unresponsive shortly after the attack.
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There was no other interaction between Brown and Zarutska, police said.
The violent attack has raised safety concerns on the light rail.
Brown is under no bond.
VIDEO: Charlotte’s Ukrainian community calls for safety after woman killed on light rail
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